Riley Jones has worked on the iconic crime drama Vera for two decades and he says Brenda Blethyn is the person to thank for his long-standing TV career after she took a punt on him when he was just age 21.
The actor, who is best known for his role as DC Edwards, appeared on ITV’s Lorraine as the iconic detective series gears up to lift it’s final ever curtain on (January 2nd) as the show comes to a close after 20-years on-air.
Speaking to host Ranvir Singh, he confessed that Brenda had been the sole person responsible for him ever being on the programme and that she really proved to be pivotal for shaping his TV career.
Hailing his co-star, Riley said: “She changed my life for the better.” He then went on to reveal that it had been Vera’s real life alter-ego who had stepped in to request for his presence on future shows.
According to the TV star, he had delivered a line in his first ever episode that really touched a cord with Brenda and she demanded to producers of the show that he was kept on. Twenty years later and he’s now thanking his lucky stars that the TV legend took a gamble on him back then.
Ranvir was keen to understand how Brenda had supported Riley from the off, she asked: “And you say what she’s [Brenda] done for you has been amazing.”
She added: “Tell us about that,” as the crime drama star interjected: “Ohh god yeah,” before blurting: “I mean she’s [Brenda] changed my life. I was in that one scene and Brenda was really instrumental in getting me back.”
Prior to the discussion, the Lorraine team showcased Riley’s first ever scene on the ITV show, reverting back to the clip he explained: “In that scene that you just showed there, there was a line where Mark has seen a dead body for the first time and he’s a young policeman, quite nervous.
He continued: “There’s a line where Brenda sees something and sees him walking off and says ‘wait where are you going’ and Brenda always says that I got the job going forward because of that one line.
She said ‘it broke her heart the way I delivered the line’ and yeah she was very instrumental in getting me back on the show which she didn’t have to do, she could have just said ‘that was a nice little scene’.
Riley added: “But she didn’t, she said ‘oh we’d like to get him back’ and so yeah, it changed my life really.”
Getting down to the nitty gritty with Ranvir, Riley explained how Vera changed his life: “I’d been studying for three years just got myself out of drama school and was my first job and I just thought that was brilliant and I had one scene with Brenda… and I thought ‘that would be great on the show reel’.
“That was it, I moved on and was doing other jobs and then they called back on the second day and said ‘we’d love you to come back and do a little bit more’ and I thought ‘well that’s good’. Then in the third year they got us back again and I’ve been there ever since.”
Vera’s last ever episode will air tonight on ITV1 from 8pm
Get the biggest TV headlines, recaps and insider knowledge straight to your inbox
