OK, I haven’t been on Tumblr for a while, but this is BBC’s hit thriller mini series “Bodyguard”. It has some plot holes so it’s not perfect, but it’s truly fucking fantastic. Thriller, intrigue, espionage, politics, terrorism, violence, strong female characters, great acting.
If you share my taste in TV & film, trust me, you’ve got to watch it. Now.
Spooks | MI5 Episode 1.01 (aka “Thou Shalt Not Kill”) Kudos/BBC 13 May 2002; dir. Bharat Nalluri; written by David Wolstencroft.
“What about you, spying for a living - lying and betraying your friends and family? You ought to take another look in the mirror.” // “I help protect the country from the likes of you.” // “Really. And who’s protecting the country from you? Your whole life is a lie. I stand by my beliefs. I doubt you’ve ever believed in anything in your entire life.“ // “I believe that killing people in the name of life is just about the stupidest thing I’ve ever come across.”
’…Fire up social media on your phone and within moments you’re free to interact with a world full of people. Holiday photos from your cousin in New Zealand? Click like!
Your pal’s video of a Yorkshire terrier that sounds like Brian Blessed? Hit retweet! Don’t like the way someone looks? Tell them to lose some weight!
Hang on, that last one is probably a bit rude. You wouldn’t wander up to a stranger in the street and casually advise them to give the sweeties a miss, not unless you were desperately craving a sore face.
Yet that kindly advice is precisely what someone like Sharon Rooney is offered when she logs into sites such as Instagram.
Sharon, who starred in Disney’s recent live action Dumbo remake, E4’s My Mad Fat Diary and hit sitcom Two Doors Down has endured her fair share of trolling.
“It’s the unsolicited medical advice I enjoy,” she laughed. “Telling me not to eat jellybeans. Thanks!
“I learned quite quickly people will pick apart anything. They will find something. Even if I was five sizes smaller, someone will tell me I looked better before. You’ll never please everyone.
“There’s a lovely mute button now. If someone writes something rude I just quietly say ‘Shhh’ to them.
“With My Mad Fat Diary I’m already saying, ‘Hello, I am fat human’. What can they say?
“I have eyes, I know what I look like and I’m fine with that. Sorry if you’re not. I’m doing OK, so please don’t worry about me.”
Sharon, 32, is doing more than OK though, which you’ll see if you tune into new ITV drama Finding Alice tonight.
She stars opposite Keeley Hawes and it’s a role that saw Sharon cross the Bodyguard star’s name off a special list.
“I’ll let you into a secret. Every actor has a dream list of people they’d love to work with and Keeley was on mine,” she said.
“I told Keeley. She just rolled her eyes and told me to shut up.
“Why would you not want to work with her? She’s fantastic in everything she does.
“Keeley’s everything I thought she would be. Whe’s one of a kind. A special human being. Look, Keeley’s not paying me to say this! Maybe she should…?”
Praising a colleague is, of course, second nature to an actor. There’s a reason they call them luvvies; plus you don’t want to end up working with someone you’ve bad-mouthed on a project in a year’s time, do you?
This isn’t merely empty platitudes for a thespian pal. Sharon’s praise is warm, generous and genuine. It’s how she herself comes across, along with a dash of wry humour.
Perhaps it’s the influence of her late granny, who Sharon describes as her soulmate.
“This sounds so cheesy but she truly was,” she added. “You know you get one human who you just chime with? I just loved her. We were two old souls.
“She taught me so much. I think grannies have that magic where they teach you to deal with life after they’re gone. I just enjoyed every minute I had with her.”
The pain and sadness we’ve all experienced over the past year, along with the forced holiday she’s had to take with being locked down, has let Sharon think about the grief she felt when her gran died.
“Even if you’re preparing for a death I don’t think it’s any easier than if it’s unexpected,” she said.
“When it is unexpected, like the way Harry dies in Finding Alice, you’re left reeling from it for so long before you can take in what’s happened.
“With Nicola, the character I play, the initial shock has happened. Her big brother has died. So how do you move forward? Grief itself is such a complicated thing. There’s no guide book. When you feel sad, you feel sad.
“Grief sneaks up on you. You think you’re fine then it appears with a ‘Hiya!’
“I still get it. I’ll think I can’t wait to show my gran something before going, ‘Oh yeah’.
“My gran spoke about it before she died. We were talking about how thinking of someone after they’ve died is like ringing a bell for them.
“She said, ‘Don’t think of me too much, hen – I’ll get no rest.’”
(Sharon Rooney as Miss Atlantis with co-star DeObia Oparei in Tim Burton’s Dumbo)
Happily, Sharon brought her sardonic and garrulous Glaswegian spirit to the set of Dumbo, in which Sharon appeared alongside Hollywood legend Danny DeVito.
“You forget they’re still humans, which is easy to do when you’re standing in front of Danny DeVito. All I could think was that this was Danny DeVito. Has anyone told him?
“You just talk on set. Gab, gab, gab. That’s all we did. I was shouting over to Tim to ask for two minutes so Danny could finish his story.
“That’s Tim Burton, by the way. Listen to me, I just call him Tim now.”
Casting for a Disney blockbuster like Dumbo was straightforward, although it did come with an ironclad ban from telling her friends about the project until it was announced.
My Mad Fat Diary focused on the plus-sized character Sharon played but, since then, the roles she’s taken don’t normally specify anything about her character’s weight.
“A lot of parts I go for don’t say the character must be plus-size or look a certain way,” she said.
“I’ve only been doing this for eight years or so but for me it’s never been an issue but I know for some it has been.
“It’s about owning who you are. I realise that’s difficult because of social media. What I try to do is take jobs with people who are authentic characters.
“If it does specify a plus-size actor then my response is to ask why. Let’s investigate this.
“These days – well, before the pandemic – I would go to auditions and the room would be filled with so many different people, which I love. The room isn’t filled with girls who all look the same.
“And I love seeing a role that I didn’t get go to someone completely different to me. Well, I don’t love it because then I’ve not got the role, but it’s still nice to see.”
A closeness with her other granny (the pair are bubbled up) has developed during the lockdowns of the past year, from which Sharon has taken heart.
Other than that she’s been enjoying her break ahead of Finding Alice’s release, as well as browsing social media.
Although these days she’s a lot wiser in how she does it; retaining the enjoyment with the help of that handy mute button.
“I used to follow every celebrity and every celebrity magazine,” added Sharon. “But it just made me doubt myself. I’d go to post a video then I’d wonder if I should put more make-up on first.
“I’ve stopped doing that. On Twitter these days I post videos where I’ve just woken up.
“I mean if you do post a video where you look great and have all your make-up on, then great, but I don’t know how you do it! I look forward to my no-make-up days.
“Oh you should see the state of me. I live in loungewear now. I put on jeans the other day. What are these things? What is this material we wear? These are awful!”
Finally, some feedback with which we can all agree…’ X
TECH? NO: Sharon Rooney isn’t daft about smart homes after filming in one for new ITV show Finding Alice
TECHNOPHOBE actress Sharon Rooney reckons living in a smart home would be a hi-tech horror — as she doesn’t even like talking to Alexa.
The Scots star — who played Miss Atlantis in big-budget Disney flick Dumbo — was at the mercy of machines filming new show Finding Alice, which was set in a house full of futuristic technology.
She admits working on the six-part ITV drama — which kickstarts after her character’s brother is found dead at the bottom of his bannister-less stairs — made her realise she’s happy to keep it simple in her own life.
Sharon, 32, says: “When we were filming on the stairs, which don’t have a bannister, I was thinking, ‘Why would you not have a bannister? It’s just so dangerous’.
“I’m very clumsy. So the thought of not having bannisters on stairs fills me with fear.
“Also, the thing of having to talk to your house to open the curtains and so on.
“I’m bad enough with the Alexa. Sometimes I’ll say something at home and she’ll suddenly talk to me.
“And I think, ‘No, I don’t want to talk to anyone, never mind a machine’. I mean, what is she listening to? What has she heard?”
Finding Alice stars Bodyguard favourite Keeley Hawes as Alice, a mum whose life is turned upside down when her husband Harry (Jason Merrells) is found dead at the bottom of the stairs in the smart house he designed.
She can’t even find the fridge while dealing with the aftermath of the tragedy and struggles to contend with unexpected visits from Harry’s parents Minnie (Gemma Jones) and Gerry (Kenneth Cranham) as well as her own dad Roger (Nigel Havers) and mum Sarah (Joanna Lumley).
To make matters worse, other unexpected visitors make her realise that Harry’s business debt wasn’t the only secret he had.
Sharon — who starred in the early seasons of hit Scots comedy Two Doors Down — plays Harry’s younger sister Nicola who has a habit of blurting out the wrong thing at the wrong time and played second fiddle to her “golden boy” sibling.
The actress thinks the show deals with the practical side of someone passing away and hopes it gets people talking about how to deal with the death of a loved-one.
She says: “There is a lot of humour in Finding Alice. Even in the saddest of times there has to be joy.
"How do you breathe again when you’ve been through such tragedy and pain? Because you have to. Life is crazy. You have to laugh again.
“I love how Nicola always wants to remind people with stories about Harry at any opportunity.
“That’s how he lives on. With reminders of him on top of the coffin at his funeral.
"My gran always used to say to me, ‘A funeral is for the living’. That’s so true.
“There’s no cheat sheet that comes when somebody dies, to say, ‘This is what you have to do’.
“I really hope Finding Alice gets people talking. Just a quick conversation.
"No one wants to talk about death. But it is important. You have to know what to do in practical terms.
"When you’re grieving the last thing you want to think about is bank accounts and passwords.”
Sharon shares the screen with The Durrells actress Keeley and admits she loved working with one of the telly stars of the moment.
She reveals: “Working with Keeley was just the best. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much.
"I remember having a day off and thinking, ‘Can I just come in?’. And they were like, ‘No. Have a day off!’.
“There’s one part of the story where Nicola and Alice go jogging. We actually did do a lot of it.
"I’m not going to say I’ve developed a love for it. But I’ve developed a liking.
“We also filmed a night out at a bowling alley. Nicola gets a strike in the script and by sheer luck I got a strike on camera.
"I felt like I had scored the winning goal in the World Cup.”
Although filming for Finding Alice was interrupted by Covid, Sharon and the cast got back to work by following strict protocols.
Ironically, the Glasgow actress admits the best thing about working on a show about smart technology was the rules banned her from even looking at her phone.
She adds: “It’s really weird how quickly it became the new normal.
“And actually, how much better it was, in a way, not to be on your phone in the morning because you couldn’t take any personal items into make-up.
“So you could just sit and not scroll through Instagram. That was nice.”
* Finding Alice starts Sunday, January 17, STV, 9pm…’
The Scottish Sun, 14.1.21 (not linked to avoid giving them more clicks)
‘Finding Alice’: watch the trailer for ITV’s new Keeley Hawes drama
‘An all-star line up joins award-winning actress Keeley Hawes in the series, which was created by Roger Goldby, Keeley Hawes and Simon Nye, and written by Roger and Simon.
The six-part drama focuses on Alice’s honest, raw, blackly comic journey of grief, love and life after the death of her partner Harry.
BAFTA-nominated Hawes plays the role of Alice, and is joined by a star-studded cast including Joanna Lumley, Nigel Havers, Jason Merrells, Gemma Jones, Kenneth Cranham, rising star Isabella Pappas, Sharon Rooney and Rhashan Stone.
“I loved putting on all that weight. It was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life. I had huge fried breakfasts and three course meals on location every day, and every time we had a coffee break I would eat as many doughnuts as I could manage. I felt so much sexier with all those curves, I had spent so much time worrying about my weight as a model, that to eat what I wanted was a very liberating experience. People expect you to be rake thin these days, and yet in Diana Dors’ day having a few extra pounds was okay” - Keeley Hawes
huwgwyther From The Durrells and Honour to Bodyguard and Line of Duty,@misskeeleyhawes has made her name as an actress who delivers poise and nuance to every role she takes on, whatever the genre or medium. Over the next month she’s set to star in three new highly-anticipated dramas, exploring the complexity of loss in Finding Alice - premiering tonight on ITV - and the 1980s AIDS epidemic in Russell T Davies’ It’s A Sin, as well as portraying Roald Dahl’s wife Patricia Neal in the upcoming biopic To Olivia.
Covering the SS21 issue ofrollacoaster, Hawes connects with her The Durrells co-star and The Crown actor Josh O’Connor over Zoom. Reflecting on these roles and the universal themes that link them, Hawes and O’Connor talk everything from navigating production through a pandemic to starting her own production company, and why they’d love to work together again.
ps - I decided to try to get Keeley for the cover after watching her performance in the final episode of @russelltdavies63 ‘s “It’s a Sin” - she’s astonishing and electrifying - I urge you to watch - an award winning performance if ever there was one…. mark my words @bafta - thank you Keeley for agreeing to do our cover - I’m truly honoured
![skatingthinandice:[ SPOOKS MEME ] favourite dynamic → danny and zoeLook, we have a flat share, okay?](https://64.media.tumblr.com/d9aeab036e571c269340949d321676a9/9d8cee4edc3f1faa-a7/s540x810/1af5cd93d0ade969d15b1429c5a17f7c7038aaec.png "skatingthinandice:[ SPOOKS MEME ] favourite dynamic → danny and zoeLook, we have a flat share, okay?")
![skatingthinandice:[ SPOOKS MEME ] favourite dynamic → danny and zoeLook, we have a flat share, okay?](https://64.media.tumblr.com/0136d854aea970ab6c78c62f2fcf1544/9d8cee4edc3f1faa-b2/s540x810/4eaca46ba8bfce7baaacec23df87f73bbd513ad1.png "skatingthinandice:[ SPOOKS MEME ] favourite dynamic → danny and zoeLook, we have a flat share, okay?")
![skatingthinandice:[ SPOOKS MEME ] favourite dynamic → danny and zoeLook, we have a flat share, okay?](https://64.media.tumblr.com/72fe2df5b7bf90c028246812f8827e86/9d8cee4edc3f1faa-38/s540x810/d2cf48938ea4d533248ce8ea3f9bb2f2910f4231.png "skatingthinandice:[ SPOOKS MEME ] favourite dynamic → danny and zoeLook, we have a flat share, okay?")
![skatingthinandice:[ SPOOKS MEME ] favourite dynamic → danny and zoeLook, we have a flat share, okay?](https://64.media.tumblr.com/1527a3d7c79d0d499a26eee5f5076894/9d8cee4edc3f1faa-af/s540x810/c5641c182697a5a4a5a6acc0c8315b0e55398d5c.png "skatingthinandice:[ SPOOKS MEME ] favourite dynamic → danny and zoeLook, we have a flat share, okay?")
