With her long-running role as Vera on ITV’s hit detective drama series, Brenda Blethyn well and truly sealed her place as one of the most beloved British actors of her generation.

And just a few months after the finale of that series, the two-time Oscar nominee has again earned major plaudits for her role in the acclaimed film Dragonfly – which opened in UK cinemas last week and has already seen her earn a couple of notable award nominations.

Given her enduring popularity, her fans will no doubt be desperate to hear what other roles she has in the pipeline, and so when RadioTimes.com spoke to her for an exclusive interview about the new film we had to ask her what she would be working on next.

“I don’t know,” was her response. “I’ve got various things on the table [I’ve] got to make decisions about. But Christmas is next!”

Asked if having played one character for so long had changed the way in which she chose her future roles, she admitted that she “missed” Vera.

“I did 14 seasons – that’s 56 films, and I was very fond of her,” she said. “And then I was only finished that a week when I started on this.”

There is one further project that we know Blethyn will be appearing in in the not too distant future. She explained that in the time since shooting Dragonfly, she’d also wrapped production on the upcoming Channel 4 series A Woman of Substance – the second adaptation of the Barbara Taylor Bradford novel that was previously made by the channel in 1984.

Some first-look images of the series were released last month, with the official synopsis teasing that it opens in 1911 and follows “an impoverished ambitious maid in Yorkshire” who “goes on a dizzying journey to become the world’s richest woman, gazing down from a sprawling luxury New York penthouse.” Blethyn will play the older version of that character.

Meanwhile, away from on-screen appearances, there’s another project that the star is hopeful she’ll be working on next year, too.

“One thing I will be doing is when I was in Newcastle, I helped out with a charity called Sunday for Sammy,” she said. “They raise money for local people who can’t afford to get training in the film industry… it helps local youngsters [find a] place in the arts. That’s coming back next year, so hopefully [I’ll] do that!”