Vera star Brenda Blethyn has revealed that she and her husband live in separate flats.

The actress – who is best known for playing DCI Vera Stanhope in the hit ITV drama – has been married to her husband Michael Mayhew for 15 years. The pair tied the knot in 2010 after first getting together in the 70s.

Brenda and Michael have apparently come up with a living situation that might seem unusual to some, but the star told The Telegraph that it “works brilliantly” for them.

She explained: “My husband lives upstairs. We moved into this very nice flat in Ramsgate. And I’d be saying, ‘Can I open a window, it’s very hot in here?’ And he’d say, ‘No, it’s freezing.’ And after a while, I said, ‘Is that flat downstairs still vacant?’”

“So I moved downstairs,” she went on. “It works brilliantly. We eat together. We go out together. We live together, but in different apartments.”

The star, 79, went on to say that the way the couple live has “a lot to say for itself” as it means having their own space and the freedom to choose when to have people over or what should be on the television or radio.

Brenda previously tied the knot with graphic designer Alan James Blethyn in 1964, but they split up in 1973 after nine years together.

The TV star and art director Michael then became an item in 1975 and the couple walked down the aisle together 35 years later, in June 2010.

The actress is well known to TV viewers for her Vera role, having starred in the hit ITV crime drama since 2011.

The programme came to an end in January after 14 series and a special, with the last instalment following the detective as she looked into the case of a missing girl and a student whose body was left near a spot she visited in her own childhood.

Brenda told The Telegraph that she “loved” the job as the quick-witted detective.

“I was proud of it and I felt like I had a command of the character,” added the star.