Star Andrea on film with Vera legend

SHE got married earlier this year, but actress Andrea Riseborough says that not even her own wedding topped being put up for a gong alongside Vera legend Brenda Blethyn.

- BY JEREMY ARMSTRONG

The pair star in director and writer Paul Andrew Williams' newly released film Dragonfly.

Partly inspired by the Covid crisis, it is a study of the loneliness that brings their two characters together.

Andrea, 43, whose previous roles include Margaret Thatcher and Wallis Simpson, plays downbeat loner Colleen, who moves in next door to Brenda' Elsie Roberts.

Friendless, she spends her time walking around the shops of a northern housing estate dressed in sweatshirt, jeans and trainers, loyal but fearsome American bulldog Sabre by her side.

Colleen, who was abandoned by her mum and brother aged eight, confides to Elsie that she was taken into care before living on benefits.

Soon she starts running errands for her older pal, whose only other regular visitors are carers.

And what starts as a tale of neighbourly friendship turns into a genre-defying story with elements of a dark thriller and a horror.

Already the two lead actresses have won the Tribeca film festival award for best performance, sharing the honour.