Big Change For Sharon Small
The Sunday Mirror, 11 March 2001
By Craig McGill
ACTRESS Sharon Small has ditched her sexy image and become a plain Jane for her latest TV role. Sharon, 33, has swapped her favourite Armani suits for dowdy cardigans and skirts for her new role in a BBC detective drama. The actress, who starred with Iain Glen in Glasgow Kiss last year, plays a woman detective in the Inspector Lynley Mysteries. She will play London-based Detective-Sergeant Barbara Havers alongside Nathaniel Parker, who plays an inspector who travels to Yorkshire to solve a murder. The dressing down was a new challenge.
She said: "After Glasgow Kiss I wanted to play an unglamorous role which didn't depend on looks so I could hone some other skills or try to acquire them. I liked going for a character who was not beautiful but had something beautiful inside."
And while most of her admirers think she always looks good, Sharon is modest.
She said: "I can look all right or I can look rough. There are things I don't like about my looks. I'm a real tubber at the moment."
One problem was getting an English accent right, even though Fife- born Sharon has lived in London for 15 years. Speaking in Caledonia Magazine she said: "I love American accents and can slip into them, but the transformation from Scots to Cockney is harder."
The murder mystery is on BBC TV tomorrow and Tuesday. Reaction has been so good within the BBC that the programme has been called The Inspector Lynley Mysteries in the hope it will become a series. But until that happens, Sharon is keeping herself busy - moving into a new flat near London's Alexandra Park.
