TV's Mistresses: Oooh, These Girls Are So Naughty... We Love It
mirror.co.uk, 15/02/2009
By Rhiannon Vivian
With its saucy storylines and devious divas, BBC1 drama Mistresses caused a storm last year. Now it’s back and the women are wilder than ever...
Last year Mistresses exploded onto our screens – a fresh and saucy drama about four female friends and their tangled love lives, complete with moral dilemmas, saucy sexy-time scenes with much frill-some knicker-flashing, a dash of humour and a sprinkling of hot men.
The stars of the show, Sarah Parish, Orla Brady, Sharon Small and Shelley Conn were thrilled to return for a second series, not least because they got to spend another three months holed up in a big house with each other in Bristol (where the series is set) gossiping over glasses of Pinot and basically having ‘a three-month party’ as Orla Brady says. And as in the series, Sarah, Sharon, Shelley and Orla have actually ended up becoming genuine friends. ‘It’s like a sorority,’ says Shelley. ‘We’ve known each other for a while now, so the bonds run deeper.’
We caught up with the girls, fresh from their foxy photo-shoot to talk about friendship, family, love, men, bums and bodies, and they were more than willing to gossip away. Shelley Conn is the youngest of the four and, at 32, looks like a fresh faced 22-year-old, full of bushy-tailed joie de vivre. Orla Brady at 46 is the oldest but makes us not worry about getting older thanks to her youthful appearance (which she attributes to good genes rather than healthy living). She’s also a charming interviewee, her sentences punctuated with infectious cackles.
Sarah Parish, resplendent in skinny jeans is utterly charming too, and empathetic – defending her wayward character to the hilt. And last but not least, Sharon. Exquisitely pretty she’s every bit the yummy mum (despite being full of cold the day we meet) but comes with bucketloads of irreverence and an honesty that makes you feel you’ve known her for years.
All the women love playing their character’s complex lives and revel in the fact their real love lives don’t reflect what goes on in the show. But series two doesn’t get any easier for our four friends and it seems each of our ladies have more hidden secrets than a vault of er, hidden secret-y things...
Sharon Small, 41, plays Trudi
LAST SERIES: Found out her hubby hadn’t perished in 9/11 but was a fraudster
THIS SERIES: Settled with boyfriend Richard, after handing her husband over to the police
‘Of all the Mistresses, Trudi has been a mum for the longest, so that kind of forces her to be a bit more normal. Yes, I get less of the sexy stuff, but perhaps the strength of her storytelling makes up for that. And I don’t mind. I think people can relate to Trudi as she’s got the reality of the school run, no cash and she hasn’t got time for fashion. She does have a little bit of sauciness coming up in this new series though. And I have to say scenes like that are kind of easier when you get older because you think, “Ah bollocks, f**k it. I’ve had two kids – get over it!’ Patrick (who plays Richard) and I are always in hysterics. He’s like, “Pass me the Listerine!”
What I love is that Mistresses isn’t just a drama for women. My brothers are really effusive about it, and they’re 22 and 24. Appealing to them as well is brilliant. Although I do remember watching one of my sex scenes in the last series, flanked by my brother and partner Dan and they were like, “Gaah. Not comfortable with this!“ I was like. “It’s just a bit of drama.”
Now we’ve finished on Mistresses I’m definitely having some time off to spend with the family. Most of last year I was pregnant (my eldest, Leo was born in 2006) or working, and your brain doesn’t fire as well. And I’d be going to auditions with my son in the pram! I have a huge respect for all mothers. Although I’d love to bring a girl into the world, I think I’m done with having kids now. I was lucky with my pregnancies so I’m grateful for that. In my 40 years I don’t know how men think, which is probably why I was given boys, so I look forward to finding out what makes them tick.’
