Vera star Brenda Blethyn has left fans scrambling for the TV remote to stick on subtitles after not being able to understand her. Viewers who are not from the Northeast claim to have learned a “new word” from the actress, 78.
The ITV show has been a huge hit in the UK, with the detective’s stardom soaring as far as the States. The US audience is said to love the programme and can’t get enough of it.
But due to it being set in Newcastle Upon Tyne, the leading actress has a strong Geordie accent which has been causing some of the Stateside lovers difficulty. Vera often says the word “Bairn” which they have been left confused over.
The slang term often refers to a child, or someone younger than the person. Some viewers were convinced for years that Vera kept referring to people as “Ben”.
Leaving them in a state of confusion, fans took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to see if anyone else thought the same. One user wrote: “Learnt the word “bairn” from watching Vera.”
While as a second penned: “There are certain UK accents that are difficult for foreigners (“foreigners” = “me”.). Glaswegian, for instance. And Geordie – my #bairn and I find that “Vera” and “Inspector George Gently” (at least when @leeingleby is interrogating suspects) need to be watched with subtitles…”
A third chimed in and said: “Ha Vera isn’t saying Ben. I thought why did she keep saying that.”
“Oh my GOD IT IS BAIRN HAHA, I am howling”, added another.
This comes after British viewers were left fuming as fans in the States were lucky enough to even see the rest of series 11 before them.
Brits were made to wait a bit longer to watch the show’s latest run, with it landing on BritBox around a month after it wrapped up on ITV1.
The leading star first graced our screens 13 years ago when she made her ITV debut as the beloved detective.
Initially, Brenda was joined by her original sidekick David Leon. The dynamic duo captured the hearts of the nation as they investigated the mysterious death of a young man, who was played by Sam Fender.
This was years before he became the Brit Award-winning megastar he is today, who sells out the likes of St James Park.
Sam appeared in Vera’s pilot, with returning star David since admitting that he and Brenda, who was told to “tone down” her Geordie ascent in the show’s early days, were never expecting it to take off in the way it did.
Vera episodes are available to watch on ITVX.