Some Like It Hot...
Sun, Sea And Sexy Surf For Sultry Sharon
Sunday Mail, 6 November 1998
By Gavin Docherty
Her name may be Small, but here's one Scots actress who is being tipped for big things. Sultry Sharon Small is fast becoming one of TV's hottest properties, thanks to a series of sizzling roles. Her sensational looks once caused laid-back cop Hamish Macbeth to get all steamed up in a torrid, bedroom scene. She also added some spice to dreary loan-shark drama Bumping the Odds, starring Joe McFadden, by going topless in the tub. Now Sharon is about to scorch TV screens again. This time, she's one of the stars in a drama that lifts the lid on the lives and loves of a bunch of British holiday reps in sun-soaked Cyprus.
The lucky Glasgow-born actress has swapped chilly Britain for three months in the Med for the new BBC1 series, Sunburn. And Sharon admits: "It's a great role."
The six-parter goes behind the facade of colourful uniforms, clipboards and welcome meetings of the team whose job is to help sun- seekers' holidays go with a swing. The series, to be screened from February, also features former EastEnder Michelle Collins; Rebecca Callard, daughter of Coronation Street star Beverly; and one-time High Road actress Natalie Robb. It is a potential blockbuster with liberal sprinklings of sun, sea and sex - just the tonic for viewers to chase away those winter blues. However, the TV breakthrough has been a long time in coming for the talented 31-year-old. Born and brought up in Drum-chapel, she has worked in more than 30 musicals and plays since moving to London several years ago. Theatre roles led to television offers, with parts in Taggart, Dr Finlay and The Bill.
Then came her first major TV drama, in last year's true-life child- abuse shocker No Child of Mine - which caused a storm even before being screened. Sharon was unwitting saviour to director Peter Kosminsky, who was embroiled in a casting nightmare for the tough part of a mother leading abusers against her own daughter. Other actresses, including Scots star Julie Graham had already shied away from the role on the grounds of it being too intense. But Sharon took the plunge - a gamble that paid off.
She was immediately snapped up to play a police force commander's WPC daughter whose charms hooked handsome Bobby Carlyle in his last appearance in the Hamish Macbeth series. Then she starred as stunningly foul-mouthed Terry in the Beeb's brutal drama Bumping the Odds, and her TV career really started to gather a head of steam - although perhaps director Rob Rohrer was a mite hasty in saying Sharon's next stop was Hollywood.
Sharon recalls: "It was a really nice thing for Rob to say, but it sounds like one of those quotes that's destined to haunt you. Sure, I'd like to go to Hollywood. I'd get myself a personal trainer, a jacuzzi, and put a little money away for a face-lift."
By the looks of things, the face-lift, at least, is a long way off yet.
COPYRIGHT 1998 Scottish Daily Record & Sunday.
