Sharon Rooney to star with Sheridan Smith to star in Channel 5 drama, ‘Teacher’
’…Stage and screen actress Sheridan Smith will play the lead role of Jenna, a teacher whose life unravels after being accused of a drunken sexual encounter with one of her pupils. With no memory of the night in question, Jenna’s only hope of redemption lies in uncovering the truth about a dark event in her past that returns to haunt her.
Samuel Bottomley plays the pupil at the centre of the drama, while Kelvin Fletcher, Cecilia Noble and Sharon Rooney star as teaching colleagues of Jenna. Meanwhile, David Fleeshman plays the role of Jenna’s father, with Ian Puleston-Davies also featuring…’
Channel 5 drama 'Teacher’ finished filming in Budapest* at the end of March, so watch this space for a broadcast date.
(*that’s why Sharon spent a week in a quarantine hotel - two negative Covid tests meant she didn’t have to do the full two weeks before heading home to Glasgow!)
@UKTheatreSchool: ‘Superb Q&A w/ @SharonRooney Such a joy! Our students were so captivated by her stories+her tips &advice. Thx for showing us your magic,Sharon! You gave a much-needed lift during these crazy times. Thx so much!You’re an absolute star! #’
@MrsDMcT: 'Sydney had such a lovely night. She felt like she was just talking to one of friends who could offer so much insight and experience! From Actor pals to making sure you save money for travel costs! She certainly spread her magic to my wee girl Thanks @sharonrooney @UKTheatreSchool’
@SharonRooney: ’Ahh thank you so much for this lovely message! Please tell Sydney she’s brilliant and to always remember her magic X’
@MrsDMcT: ’Oh my goodness, Sydney is bouncing around the living room with happiness! Your words have definitely had an impact on her. Thanks again Sharon, what a beautiful role model you are inside and out dx’
Lovely to see Sharon encouraging young drama students. Doesn’t young Sydney look like a teenage Sharon/Rae?!
Sharon Rooney to star with Sheridan Smith to star in Channel 5 drama, ‘Teacher’
’…Stage and screen actress Sheridan Smith will play the lead role of Jenna, a teacher whose life unravels after being accused of a drunken sexual encounter with one of her pupils. With no memory of the night in question, Jenna’s only hope of redemption lies in uncovering the truth about a dark event in her past that returns to haunt her.
Samuel Bottomley plays the pupil at the centre of the drama, while Kelvin Fletcher, Cecilia Noble and Sharon Rooney star as teaching colleagues of Jenna. Meanwhile, David Fleeshman plays the role of Jenna’s father, with Ian Puleston-Davies also featuring…’
‘McDonald & Dodds’ guest star Sharon Rooney: 'There’s more to Doreen than meets the eye!’
Best known for starring in such shows as My Mad Fat Diary, Two Doors Down and, most recently, Finding Alice, actor Sharon Rooney returns to our screens this Sunday in McDonald & Dodds Season 2, playing one of five friends who all become suspects when a birthday celebration ends in murder
Always centre of attention, Angela has travelled from Glasgow to Bath to celebrate her birthday with four friends, including best pal Doreen (Rooney). After meeting a group of rugby players, everyone heads to a house party at a mansion, near Brunel’s Box Hill Tunnel.
When promising rugby star Dominique Aubert is then found dead on a railway line — after drinking a lethal, spiked cocktail — all party-goers become suspects.
While McDonald (Tala Gouveia) untangles a web of mystery surrounding the women and the rugby club — and its chairman Jimmy (Cold Feet’s John Thomson) and agent Deborah (Coronation Street’s Natalie Gumede) — Doreen takes an unusual interest in Dodds (Jason Watkins) and the investigation. Is this her time to shine?
We chatted to Sharon Rooney — aka Doreen — to find out more…
Sharon Rooney on her character in McDonald & Dodds
“Doreen is the put-upon friend, and almost like the mum of the group, who’s organised this whole weekend away for her best friend Angela’s birthday. Angela is one of those people who loves to be in the spotlight while Doreen is happy to be in the background. There’s definitely more to Doreen than meets the eye, although that is the case with all of the characters in this series. You think they are one thing and they turn out to be completely different.”
Sharon Rooney on what Dodds makes of Doreen.
“McDonald sees right through Doreen and thinks she is a pain, and Doreen can tell McDonald feels that way about her, so she ignores her and hones straight in on Dodds. She is very excitable around him and constantly calls him 'Sarge’ which confuses him. She seems to enjoy winding him up.
"I worked with Jason very briefly a few years ago and it was really nice to work with him again. He’s such a great actor — so ridiculously talented — but he’s also the nicest guy. We filmed this episode for four weeks and at the end I was like: ‘Do you want me to stay a little bit longer?’”
Sharon Rooney on working with John Thomson
That was pretty cool. It’s funny because we’d worked together on this but when he was on The Masked Singer, I couldn’t believe I didn’t guess it was him. When they unmasked him, my dad said: 'Oh well done, Sharon, you kept a good poker face.’ I was like: 'I had no idea! He didn’t tell his own daughters, why would he tell me?’“
Sharon Rooney on the perfect girls’ weekend
"There is one place me and my best friends go and we love it. There is a private hot tub, so we all sit in there during the day and then, at night, it’s face masks, pyjamas, snacks, films and chatting rubbish until four in the morning. I am a bit like Doreen, I organise it all and I’m like: 'Here is where we are going, here is your itinerary, here’s our budget.’ I’ll get us all matching outfits, matching towels, the whole hog. When I’m busy with work, I don’t get to see my friends a lot, so when we get time for a girls’ weekend, I like to go ALL out.”
Sharon Rooney on being recognised
“My Mad Fat Diary is probably the most common one, although, when I’m in Scotland it’s always Two Doors Down. I have been recognised for Dumbo a couple of times by little kids. I was at an event and this little girl kept lifting my dress up. Her dad said: 'I think she is looking for your tail.’ I was like: ‘That is so cute — but this dress is quite short!’”
Sharon is back on the box tonight in McDonald & Dodds(ITV at 9pm)!
In S2 Ep2: We Need To Talk About Doreen, Sharon plays Doreen, one of a group of ladies on a birthday weekend away. But is one of them capable of murder?!
’…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
As new series Finding Alice airs on ITV, Sharon Rooney talks about checking on your strong friends, building mansions on The Sims and falling down a YouTube rabbit hole on the daily
“Make a will,” Sharon Rooney urges us. “It’s so boring and so stressful and sad, but just take an afternoon out and get it done.” The Glaswegian actor, best known for her lead role in My Mad Fat Diary, is surprisingly upbeat and matter-of-fact as she discusses our mortality. Her latest project, Finding Alice, which deals with death and grief head-on, has rubbed off on her – small talk be damned! “It made me realise how important those conversations are that no one wants to have, because it’s inevitable – no one’s getting out of this alive.”
Finding Alice, created by The Durrells’ directorRoger Goldby, writer Simon Nye and star Keeley Hawes (who plays Alice), almost immediately opens with a death. Alice’s husband Harry (Jason Merrells, Agatha Raisin) falls down the stairs in the dream home he’s built for her and their teen daughter Charlotte (Isabella Pappas,Paranoid). It’s clear he hasn’t planned for this eventuality (nor did he plan for a bannister) and Alice is left to deal with the fallout, which includes the secrets Harry leaves in his wake.
Sharon plays Nicola, who copes with the death of her older brother by attempting to stay positive for everyone, as well as acting and dressing loudly (“I’m the sassy one!,” she proclaims at Harry’s inquest) – something Sharon had a say in. “I said, “What about headbands?” There were about eight different ones. And I said she’s got to have a necklace with her name on. That’s Nicola’s armour,” Sharon says.
“The brighter the clothes get, the worse she’s feeling. Everything is to compensate. It’s so important to check on your loud friends just as much as your quiet friends. With Nicola, I think, “Who is checking on you?” It’s made me send a few texts that I hadn’t [previously], because I thought, “Oh, they’ll be fine.””
Despite the difficult topics the show covers, you’ll laugh a lot as the darkly comic humour shines through – FindingAlice screams, “Let’s talk about death, baby!” in a relatable and honest, yet funny and amusing way.
For example, Alice can’t figure out where the fridge is in the house (it’s a complicated smart home) and wonders why a “compare the coffin” website doesn’t exist, eventually opting to buy Harry’s from Amazon. “We all experience grief at some point,” Sharon says. “It’s not all awful, you do learn to laugh again.”
Joanna Lumley (Absolutely Fabulous) plays Alice’s stand-offish and judgemental mum, with Nigel Havers (Coronation Street) as her quiet but well-meaning dad. Gemma Jones (Bridget Jones’s Diary) and Kenneth Cranham (Layer Cake) also join the cast as Harry’s parents, and Rhashan Stone (Strike Back) is a mortuary worker who becomes Alice’s “death guru.”
Before you tune in for the show, which Sharon describes as a “wee bit of TV soup for the soul”, here’s one of everything from the entertainment world that she’s loving right now…
TV show: I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!
I really love Giovanna [Fletcher, from series 20], I think she is a super mum. I also really like Beverly [Callard]. I’d love to live in a castle. I’m slightly jealous of them, although not that jealous, because my couch is much comfier.
This is my third time re-watching The Royle Family during lockdown. I can quote the whole thing from start to finish.
Film: Stepmom
I watched it when it first came out many moons ago and I enjoyed it, so it’s a film I always go back to. I’m a really bad re-watcher, I’ll re-watch the same things over and over. I love a film that makes me cry!
App: Instagram
I spend hours on it. You know when you go into the search bar and they put videos you think you’ll like? Before I know it, I’m like, “Oh, that’s 40 minutes gone.”
Friend you always call: Best friend Anna
We met at college when we were 16 and I speak to her pretty much all day every day. She’s got the pink sparkly love heart emoji next to her name in my phone.
Video game: The Sims
I don’t play with the actual Sims, I just enjoy building houses. It’s really relaxing, because there’s a clear end goal.Don’t tell my agent that’s what I do – they think I’m doing very serious actor work, but I’m actually just building a giant mansion.
YouTube: Vlogs
I like Disney vlogs, family vlogs, people going about their day vlogs, and haul videos, where people buy stuff and show you. I do watch people building Sims houses – I wasn’t gonna tell you that…
I’ve been listening toher podcast for years and years – it first came out in 2010. She does it with her daughter.
Documentary: American Murder: The Family Next Door
I love all the crime documentaries. I also really like 60 Days In, where they put normal civilians in prisons to find out what’s going on inside. I also like watching YouTube videos on real crime – and then I wonder why I have weird dreams.
Guilty pleasure: YouTube videos
It’s all of the ones I’ve just told you! I’ll watch anything and everything. It’s probably YouTube videos. The other night, I went into a Dance Moms dark hole. I clicked on a recap video by accident, and before I knew it, I’d watched all of them. Or, those Facebook videos where they do funniest babies, funniest dogs, funniest cats. I’m usually watching them in my trailer.
When is ITV’s Finding Alice on TV?
Finding Alice airs on ITV HD (CH 113) on Sundays at 9pm, with the first episode screening on 17 January. The six-part series will subsequently air every week until Sunday 21 February.
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.
joyjoymcavoy 'That’s a wrap on McDonald and Dodds @itv so many lovely photos but this is the only one I’m allowed to post…it just so happens to be with the incredible @sharon_rooney ❤️
we had such an amazing girl gang with @shelleyconn033 @katronney @lifegoalsonwheels and a really wonderful cast @johnthomson2 @natalie.gumede @arothney, @tomosgwynfryn @felipebejarano and @georgehjwatkins thanks to McDonald and Dodds themselves @jasonwatkinsofficial and @talagouveia for making us feel so welcome on set and bringing the magic to every scene and to our incredible director @bexrycroft thank you!! @mammothscreen #itv #itvdrama #actor #lovelymemories’
Sharon Rooney will guest star in the second season of ITV’s police drama McDonald & Dodds… will her character be victim or suspect?!
McDonald & Dodds is set in Bath and follows DCI McDonald (Tala Gouveia), who has recently transferred from London’s Met Police, and has been partnered with the unassuming DS Dodds (Jason Watkins), who has been happy in the background for most of his working life. To McDonald’s surprise they form an unexpectedly effective crime solving partnership.
“…The second episode of season two, titled We Need To Talk About Doreen, tells the story of Doreen (Sharon Rooney), part of a group who have travelled to Bath for the weekend to celebrate their friend Angela’s (Joy McAvoy) birthday.
Whilst out on the town celebrating, Doreen, Angela, Hilary (Shelley Conn), Melissa (Maya Coates) and Cath (Kat Ronney) get chatting to some players from the Bath Eagles Rugby Club, including its strapping new signing Dominique Aubert (Tomos Gwynfryn). They are invited to a party thrown by rugby club chairman Jimmy (John Thomson) at his home and happily attend with other members of the rugby team and Dominique Aubert’s agent Deborah (Natalie Gumede). But the following morning, as most of the party are nursing their hangovers, the body of one guest is discovered near a railway tunnel and McDonald & Dodds are called in to investigate…”
‘The 6 x 30” series follows quick-witted, rebellious Holly (Jahannah James), a frustrated wannabe wrestler facing the challenge of a lifetime. When all of Boss Pro’s top wrestlers are poached by her brother Nick Nitro (Richard Fleeshman), Holly’s mum, Pam (Pippa Haywood) is left devastated as it looks as though it’s game over for the North West’s oldest pro-wrestling company. But, if Holly can bring together Boss Pro’s remaining gang of misfits, the company might just survive…if only Pam would allow Holly to wrestle herself.
We join the Boss Pro crew as they look toward a summer of slams and self-discovery – can our underdogs come together and come out on top to put on the show of a lifetime?’ X
Also in the cast: Paul Olima (newcomer), Alistair Petrie (Sex Education), Max Olesker (W1A), Ivan Gonzalez (W1A), Sasha Desouza-Willock (Adult Material) and Abby Russell (Hang Ups) with guest appearances from Matt Lucas (Little Britain), John Thomson (Cold Feet), Ben Ashenden (Stath Lets Flats) and Carla Langley (There She Goes), as well as some real-life pro-wrestlers.
So now we know what Sharon was working on when she posted this photo with Alistair Petrie! (And when I said to her, 'You’re blonde again!’, she said, 'Not blonde!’… so maybe we have ourselves an Ice Queen?!)
Lucky for us, we have a wrestling superfan in the My Mad Fat Diary/Sharon Rooney fandom, so please direct any sport-based queries to lovely @lilaviolet!
SharonRooney stars with the legendary Joseph Marcell (Geoffrey in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) in short film Good Night Henry.
Written and directed by Isher Sahota, the cast also includes Ryan Gage (The Musketeers, The Hobbit).
This period comedy is set in 1865:
‘When the Prime Minister dies in scandalous circumstances, Mr Pageant - his closest advisor - must salvage the country’s free trade deal with the visiting French ambassador whilst limiting the damage a chambermaid may cause to the country’s reputation.’ X
It sounds like Sharon’s plays the troublesome chambermaid!
Sharon Rooney as Josephine in The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain.
The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain: Sharon Rooney on acting her age, reuniting with Benedict Cumberbatch and falling for Mr Bumble (Sunday Post, January 1, 2022)
Deep-set crow’s feet, neck wattle and wrinkles: at 33, Glasgow girl Sharon Rooney has the lot – but only when shooting her new movie.
The My Mad Fat Diary star sat patiently for hours while make-up artists transformed her into a 72-year-old with glued-on jowls and special contact lenses to create the illusion of rheumy eyes.
“I would get messages from my mum saying ‘Send me pictures,’” recalls Rooney.
“Eventually I gave in and immediately she said, ‘You look like your gran.’ That’s what I tried to warn her! I looked so like her mum, who passed away not long ago, although my gran wouldn’t mind, she’d have found it funny.
“I found it fascinating, but not scary because we should be allowed to age. In fact, there’s something beautiful about ageing.
“You can see a life in a face. For instance, I have a really strong frown line between my eyes because I frown when I’m concentrating. I also have smile lines, because that’s been my life, so I’d never want to erase that.”
In The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain, Rooney plays the sister of the titular artist, who made a fortune painting affectionate pictures of cats, only to lose the lot through bad business deals and ill health.
Since the movies spans decades she appears first as a teen, then a middle–aged woman and eventually as a pensioner.
“The make-up people were brilliant,” she says. “But I think it was harder making me look 17 than it was to make me look 70.”
The film is a passion project for Benedict Cumberbatch, who produced it through his own company, as well as starring as the cat-obsessed Louis Wain.
It reunited Rooney and the Doctor Strange star for the first time since 2013, when she was cast in a Sherlock episode called The Empty Hearse: “I only had a tiny wee scene and it wasn’t even with Benedict but Sherlock is one of my mum’s favourite shows and before filming the whole cast got together to read through the script, so I got to sit in a room and watch Benedict and Martin Freeman work.”
Eight years later, Sharon and Benedict finally share the screen. “He hasn’t changed,” she says. “Back then he was very kind and very generous and he’s still lovely, and ridiculously talented.”
Rooney didn’t know much about Louis Wain before making the movie. “I think that goes for a lot of people,” she says.
“But although you might not know the name, you’d recognise his pictures of cats when you saw them – the style is so distinctive.”
Unsurprisingly, cats feature in the film, including a kitten called Mr Bumble who won Rooney’s heart.
“Up till then I’d got a funny thing with cats. I like them, but I was a bit nervous because our family once had a cat and she hated us,” says the former Two Doors Down star.
“Not just me, the whole family. We looked after her for seven years, and spoilt her quite a bit because we wanted her to like us but she wouldn’t even let me hold her.
“In the end we gave up and passed her on to a friend. The day after she left, my mum phoned her pal to see how the cat was doing, and she said, ‘She’s doing great, such a loving cat.’ Unbelievable! So for a long time I thought, ‘oh well, cats just don’t like us.’”
2021 has been a busy year for the actress, despite the pandemic. As well as Louis Wain, she scooped a supporting actress award for the short film Do No Harm, appeared alongside Keeley Hawes in ITV drama Finding Alice and is set to appear in the upcoming BBC thriller The Control Room.
“I feel like I’m in a really good place now, because I get to do these big films and telly jobs and then I get to do smaller comedies,” says Rooney.
“I love that my work is a completely mixed bag. I’ve just finished filming two jobs that were complete opposites. One of them was The Control Room, and the other one I can’t talk about yet – which is very annoying, because it would make this story a lot better.”
Rooney has been so busy working that she doesn’t have much time to relax in front of the TV: “If I’m away from home, in a strange place, I stick on something like Stepmom, Bridesmaids, or an Adam Sandler movie because I’ve seen them so often that if I fall asleep, it’s OK.
“At this time of year, I also love the Nativity films with Martin Freeman and David Tennant. Their song Dude, Where’s My Donkey is very catchy although when I was scrolling through Tiktok the other day, I saw some of the kids from the film and they are all grown up and six feet tall now.
“Now I understand what my gran used to say about doctors getting younger and younger!”
Despite globetrotting for work, Sharon has no plans to move away from the Dumbarton home she shares with her mum and dad.
“I keep saying to my mum, ‘you’re never, ever getting rid of me,’” she laughs. “I constantly get asked, “have you moved to London yet?” And the answer is that I don’t think I will ever move to London, because I don’t want to.
“When I started out, I had to travel up and down to London to meet people, and it was hard because I would be down to the last two or three for a part, then not get it. The train fare was about £90 each time.
“As an actor, it’s part of life, especially when you’re starting out and people don’t really know you. Now self-taping has become a lot more common, especially after the Covid pandemic began.”
Instead of auditioning actors in person, TV and film bosses now ask them to film themselves reading for a part. For Rooney, this has been a game changer, and has made her mum Libby into a star turn playing all the other characters in Sharon’s scenes.
“My mum loves taping with me, and she’s brought me luck on loads of jobs,” she chuckles.
“She’s my magic charm when I’m trying for a part, and I usually get a note afterwards saying, ‘your mum was very good!’”
Sharon Rooney has joined the cast of new BBC thriller, The Control Room.
The Scottish drama has just started filming, in Sharon’s hometown of Glasgow.
Iain De Caestecker (Roadkill) and Joanna Vanderham (The Paradise) lead an ensemble cast which also includes Daniel Portman from Game of Thrones, Taj Atwal from Line of Duty and Stuart Bowman from The Bodyguard.
The Control Room follows the story of ambulance service emergency call handler Gabe, played by De Caestecker, who has his world 'turned upside down when he receives a desperate life-and-death call from a woman who appears to know him’, according to the BBC.
It is written by Nick Leather (who also wrote Murdered For Being Different, starring My Mad Fat Diary’s Nico Mirallegro) and directed by Amy Neil (Hanna, Trust Me).
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