Untitled Document

On The Phone With Sharon Small

Daily Record, 2 April 2005

The Inspector Lynley star on why her fans are fainting and why she thinks Nat Parker should be Bond.

I hear that people have been passing out after coming to see you on stage in Lear in Sheffield. Why's that?

There have been a few people feeling a bit queasy, and it has been causing a stir because quite some people have found it hard going. It's a bit violent in places, but always for a reason - just to show how terrible a ruler Lear was. There's a message in it all.

It all sounds a bit gruesome?

Well, my character Fontanelle abuses her position and has Lear's second in command tortured by a soldier, we have him beaten up severely. Later Lear has his eyes removed, and then I'm killed and they perform an autopsy on the stage.

The last series of Lynley ended with your character Barbara taking a bullet, but you've hung on in there.

Yeah, I had someone come up to me in the theatre last night to say how pleased they were I was still in it. That was nice, although I think they were probably shocked by the character they saw me playing on stage. It's very different from Barbara, who's always a little restricted. She doesn't feel good about herself. She's held back by her own hang-ups and has lack s a fulfilling social life. I know her well though, so it's easier to get in and out of character. In the past, I kind of had to try to shake her off in some ways.

Lynley takes six months to make four weeks of drama. Does that prevent you from doing much else?

Well, it is longer than most folk think, but I've been really busy, and I'll be doing Shakespeare for the BBC soon. I'm playing Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Barbara was doing Aikido in the second episode. Did you have to learn the ropes?

Yeah, I had a really good teacher, who basically taught me how to bluff my way through it in four hours. I actually learned how to get really centred on the ground. No-one can push me over, you know. Now I've said that I'll have random punters coming up to me in the street and trying to push me over.

You starred with Gerard Butler in weepy Scots flick Dear Frankie recently. He's being touted as the next Bond - your thoughts on that?

I'm sure Gerry would be a great Bond. But my shout for Bond is Nathaniel Parker, my Lynley co-star. He's a natural for the part. I think he was Born to play Bond. He's a total action man, and would be great doing his own stunts. I think he's got a quality similar to Pierce Brosnan. And he's got perfect Bond hair...

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