Sharon Small says Trust Me role is just what the doctor ordered

SCOTS star Sharon Small may be one our best-known actors – but her kids have never seen her perform.

Well, apart from a brief glimpse in Call The Midwife that had them recoil in shock.

The problem has been the more grown-up work she’s done since Leo, 11, and Zac, nine, were born.

“Leo was the voice off-stage for The Wizard Of Oz for their Year Six play but they’ve no interest in doing any extra drama classes,” Sharon told iN10. “But then they haven’t ever really seen me in action. Maybe Inspector Lynley would be OK now but the other TV and theatre stuff hasn’t really been suitable.

“I did something at the National Theatre last summer which was hard-hitting and I was swearing a lot so I thought that was another thing they couldn’t come to.

“I let them see a bit of Call The Midwife once when they were younger where I had TV husband and they were like, ‘Why are you kissing that man!’”

Sharon’s current project falls into the too-adult – and downright tense – category.

Trust Me is a psychological thriller about highly skilled nurse Cath Hardacre – played by new Doctor Who Jodie Whittaker – who loses her job for whistle-blowing.

Desperate to look after her daughter, Cath takes the opportunity to steal her best friend’s identity as a senior doctor and start a new life in Edinburgh.

But how far will she be able to take the deception? And how far will she go to protect her new life?

Sharon plays the senior doc who employs and befriends her, unaware of the truth.

“It’s a really intriguing premise as to whether you can get away with stealing someone’s identity,” says Sharon.

“We totally trust our doctors to take care of us and save our lives and it would never enter our heads to question whether they were actually qualified for the job.

“Cath is a good person so I’m sure people will be on her side but also torn because what she’s doing is really bad.”

While the exterior scenes were filmed in Edinburgh, a hospital set was created on location in Glasgow.

And although, like The Replacement which was screened earlier this year and also shot in the city, it’s real edge-of-the-seat stuff, Sharon says the on-set atmosphere was a lot more relaxed.

“Jodie is such great fun. She is in there from morning to night, in just about every single scene but she’s a joy. She’s a really good laugh. Some people can be incredibly serious about the whole thing and you find yourself walking around on eggshells.

“But this was very laid-back. You’d have a dramatic scene and then laugh, ‘Look at us pretending to be doctors!’”

During her lengthy career, Sharon has only played someone in the medical profession a couple of times before.

She was in Channel 4’s Born To Kill a few months ago, but it’s a much earlier part that really sticks in her mind.

“I played a nurse once in a film with Dustin Hoffman,” explains Sharon.

“Months later they decided they didn’t want that scene but still wanted me in it for a different scene.

“But by then I was weeks away from giving birth and they couldn’t use me. The original scene ended up on the cutting room floor but I still have my memories of the day I filmed with him.

“He was fantastic and so generous. There was that moment when it was his shot and you thought, ‘Wow, there’s the magic’.

“A light goes on in his eyes and it was amazing to see.

“I kind of forgot I was acting and I was just thinking that this was Dustin Hoffman lying there in a hospital bed.”

Trust Me gave Sharon the chance to catch up with her mum, who still lives in Fife.

“I always love getting back,” she adds.

“And I love the taxi drivers who have so many stories. I had one who took me to the airport who got out, gave me a big hug and said he loved me!”

Trust Me, BBC1, Tuesday, 9pm.