Life's Just So Good As A Mistress
The Daily Record, 12 January 2008
Sharon Small Stars In Raunchy Drama About Life, Love, Lust And Betrayal Hot New TV Series Is Even Grittier Than Desperate Houswives Or Sex In The City.
By Annie Brown
Playing a nurse alongside Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Small was surprised when the Hollywood star gifted her a bed pan with a personal memento inside. Luckily for her the little something was nothing more innocuous than the actor's signature.
Sharon said: "He found a bed pan and gave it to me to take away - he just handed it to me and said 'here ...' and autographed it."
Diamonds might have been classier but Sharon is not one to complain - she's just grateful to be working with the Hollywood legend on his movie Last Chance Harvey.
She said: "I literally have a tiny, tiny part. I don't even have a name but I have a lovely scene with Dustin Hoffman. He's a patient, comes in with a heart attack and I play his nurse. He was very, very nice."
Her role may have been tiny in Last Chance Harvey but it's pivotal in new BBC drama Mistresses. The story revolves around the loves, lusts and betrayals of four thirtysomething girlfriends whose lives have taken different turns since they were together at university.
There's a definite whiff of Sex and the City or Desperate Housewives in there but Sharon insists the only real comparison is the female-driven storylines.
She said: "It's definitely grittier than Sex and the City or Desperate Housewives.
"I showed it to Dan my partner and my wee brother who's 21 and both of them said they really liked it. They didn't find it too chicky."
In a part far removed from the sour puss detective Barbara Havers in the Inspector Lynley Mysteries, she plays Trudi, a 9/11 widow who is convinced her husband may still be alive as his body has never been found. Her doubts are fuelled further by a series of mysterious, silent phone calls.
Sharon said: "Trudi's husband worked in America - in the twin towers when the planes hit.
"It starts off with her accepting the bereavement cheque which is an acceptance for her that he is actually dead. Morally, that's what it would represent to her, even though legally he's already been declared dead."
At the heart of her storyline is her struggle to move on with her life while raising her two daughters alone. She kisses a lot of frogs in a series of toe-curling dating disasters before her handsome prince arrives in the shape of single dad Richard. Out of practice on the dating scene, Trudi feels like a blushing, awkward teenager making her first forays in the romance stakes. Her love life has its own angst but is less entangled than her friends - she's not a mistress for a start. That's not to say that by default she isn't in some way complicit.
Sharon said: "That's the point, that she's not actually an mistress. All four women aren't necessarily mistresses.
"They all have an involvement to some degree though.
"My best friend reveals herself to be a mistress and that really throws me because she's my best friend and I didn't know that about her.
"As a married woman it's against everything my character believes in.
"All the characters have some confrontation with infidelity.
"I think everyone watching will be able to relate to the characters and their stories. It is sad fact of life these days that everyone knows someone who has been affected by an affair.
"I think that it will be hard for the viewers not to be too judgmental on certain characters' situations."
On a personal level, Sharon has known people who have strayed and believes that it's a common moral conundrum.
She said: "One tends to side with your friends, whether they are the mistress or the one being cheated on - I think your loyalties change depending on who the person is."
It's a strong sexy cast, Sarah Parish (Katie), Orla Brady (Siobhan) and Shelley Conn (Jessica) but there weren't many opportunities for the actresses to bond on the set.
Sharon said: "When we got together it probably was like a scene from Sex and the City.
"We didn't do a lot of scenes together so I didn't see them as much as I would have liked.
"When we were on set we were just incredibly noisy-Orla is a cackler and we often roared with laughter about the smallest things.
"The director was probably just sitting there twiddling his thumbs waiting to tell us to shut up and get on with the action."
And there is plenty of action in the bedroom - but more for the other girls than Sharon who was happy to avoid the raunchier scenes.
She said: "I did have a scene with Patrick where I had to wear some sexy underwear and I was a bit worried about that.
"They were right up my bottom but I think it did me favours.
"I was nervous about it.
"Having had a baby, your body is different but luckily the suck-in knickers helped a great deal."
Trudi is the earth mother to the high flyers her friends have become. They also have far more colourful love lives. Katie is a well respected GP who has been having an affair with John, a terminally ill patient for the last two years. Siobhan's sex life with her husband Hari has lost some of its spontaneity thanks to the mundane mechanics of trying to make a baby. And Jessica is not that big on commitment and regularly indulges in illicit meetings with her married boss.
Sharon said: "Trudi is much more the housewife.
"She married younger so as a result of her motherly nature, she is like the hostess or entertainer of the group. She is always distracted by screaming children.
"I like how she juggles life, she does it better than I do."
Sharon did her own juggling, taking her toddler son Leo to work with her for the show, just as she did when she was working on Inspector Lynley. Then she was breastfeeding him between takes.
It's no less of a balancing act now and Sharon admits that being a 40 year-old mum can be incredibly hard. "Having a child is a lovely lovely gift to have, especially at my age, but it's a difficult ride," she said.
"It's bloody knackering. It is the most tired I've ever been. It's the responsibility of making sure they're eating sleeping, waking up.
"It is exhausting.
"I didn't realise how easy it was when all I had to think about was myself. I had no concept of what it was like to be a mother."
And in another major life transition, Sharon has said goodbye to Barbara Havers, the surly sidekick to Inspector Lynley. Mistresses couldn't have been any more different from the mellow hayscented detective series.
"Trudi is very different to Barbara Havers in Inspector Lynley," she said.
"Trudi is so much messier. Havers is very contained and closed because of her job.
"She had to keep a lot of personal feelings to herself whereas everything just spills out of Trudi, including judgmental comments.
"I liked the fact that she was a polar opposite to someone I had played for a long time."
The Inspector and his sidekick have solved their last mystery, well, probably. There are a couple of episodes still to be aired but one featured a plot too close to the Madeleine McCann tragedy so it was taken out of the schedules.
Sharon said: "They've decided not to go further with the series.
"There's nothing saying we're never coming back again. I think there was an online petition to get us to have another episode. But I do think it's had its time."
Havers may well have had her time but, for Sharon, life is enjoying a fresh beginning at 40.
Mistresses - Tuesday 9.00pm BBC1
