It was hailed by Channel 4 as much-loved Brenda Blethyn‘s big return to television after she stood down from playing the detective Vera on ITV.
Front and centre of the adverts for the new period drama A Woman Of Substance, she’s also been busy on the publicity trail to get viewers to watch her play maid-turned-mogul Emma Harte in her older years.
But many have been left disappointed because she has barely been on screen.
Indeed, she is seen for only 33 of the 376 minutes of the eight-part series based on Barbara Taylor-Bradford’s 1979 bestseller.
In one episode she appears for just over a minute; in another, she’s seen for 86 seconds.
In contrast Irish actress Jessica Reynolds, who plays a younger version of ambitious Harte, is in almost every scene.
The decision to feature so little of Ms Blethyn, who turned 80 in February, has confused viewers and left some feeling short-changed.
Brenda Blethyn plays maid-turned-mogul Emma Harte in the new Channel 4 period drama A Woman of Substance but many took to social media to say she is ‘hardly in it’
Meanwhile Irish actress Jessica Reynolds, who plays a younger version of Ms Blethyn’s character, is in almost every scene
One pointed out on social media: ‘The whole campaign has been based on Brenda but she’s hardly in it.
‘You’d think she would be front and centre and star of the show, but she isn’t. It doesn’t seem right that Channel 4 have made the optics appear like this.’
The drama charts the rise of Harte from penniless maid in Yorkshire in the 1900s to business mogul in the 1970s after vowing lifelong revenge against the family she once worked for.
