By Carol Davison
It was only fitting that I met up with local actress Sharon Percy in North Shields’ Cultural Quarter. It was a sunny Friday afternoon, and Sharon came bouncing into Brown’s bar with a huge smile, looking like a million dollars despite having just finished a hectic week at work in her day job as an employment advisor in the Beacon Centre’s Working Well Hub.
Sharon seemed to know everyone and was bombarded with hugs and hellos from customers and bar staff. “I used to work here,” she explained modestly, underplaying her energetic personality. This steered our conversation towards how fantastic the Exchange was as a music and theatrical venue, and I reticently admitted to having seen the Katie Price panto there earlier in the year. My confession was rewarded with an unexpected Pricey anecdote, Sharon recalling how she had been working at the Exchange at that time and had met Katie at an after-show party. “I was wearing a pair of sparkly Converse, and she absolutely loved them,” Sharon revealed. Katie insisted on buying them there and then and Sharon was happy to oblige. “Mind, I’m glad I got my money before she went bankrupt,” she joked, her breezy character a far cry from the officious Sheila who she played in the 2016 hit film, ‘I, Daniel Blake’.
Recalling her role in the Ken Loach film, a job centre worker who obstructed Daniel at every turn with her jobsworth attitude, Sharon explained that she had only been privy to her lines and not the full script during filming so didn’t understand the context of her part. It wasn’t until the premiere, when she saw the film in its entirety that she realised the negative impact Sheila had had on the main characters. She said her jaw dropped as she watched the story unfold and spent the whole screening worrying that she would become public enemy number one!
Sharon’s acting career started early when she joined the Tyne Theatre Acting School aged eight.
Having completed a performing arts course at Newcastle College, she was spotted by Live Theatre Company’s Artistic Director, Max Roberts who gave her her first professional acting role in the play ‘Your Home in the West,’ cast alongside Robson Green and Charlie Hardwick.
This was to be the start of a long professional career and Sharon has worked steadily in theatre, film, TV and radio ever since. Her television credits include ‘Cracker,’ ‘Vera’ and ‘Woolfblood’ and as well as ‘I, Daniel Blake,’ her film credits include ‘Billy Elliot’ and ‘School for Seduction’ with Kelly Brook. Her role as Jill in ‘Cooking with Elvis’ took her to the Edinburgh Festival and then onto London’s West End where she starred alongside comedian Frank Skinner.
As a mother of two, Sharon decided to stay in the Northeast and ruled out acting jobs which took her too far away from home. She acknowledged that this proved limiting for her acting CV at times, so is over the moon that things seem to be on the up for the film and entertainments industry in the North.
She highlighted the planned Crown Works film studios which promise to bring thousands of jobs to the area and forward-looking companies such as Crew Gals. Such is her faith in the North, Sharon has recently moved from her London agent to the more local ‘Newtown Artist Management’ based in Washington as she feels it is important to be represented up here. The move has paid off and she has already bagged a role in a new feature film, ‘Little Red,’ a horror film based on Little Red Riding Hood being produced by the writer and director of ‘The Descent’ and ‘Dog Soldiers,’ Neil Marshall. Whilst it looks like promising times ahead for Sharon’s acting career, she is ever the pragmatist and feels lucky to have her ‘day job,’ a role which she clearly loves, helping to get people job ready and into work.
Having spent the afternoon chatting with Sharon, I’m quite sure that with her positive and effervescent personality, she is an absolute asset to the Working Well Hub and is clearly nothing like Sheila!
Local CARICATURIST ROBIN MCNALLY
It was telling that of all the people in the crowded bar that Friday afternoon, Robin McNally selected Sharon to draw as he sat quietly on his own, enjoying a pint. We were alerted to Robin’s artistic endeavours as we packed up to leave, an acquaintance of his sitting at a neighbouring table, beckoning to us. Out of curiosity, we went over and were shown the sketch Robin had been making. He was quite embarrassed. “I told him not to show you. I’m not even finished it yet.” The pencil sketch on the back of a menu was cracking, showing Sharon’s dress and shoes in fine detail. I was disappointed we hadn’t decided to stay for another drink so he could have finished it. Robin, a regular in some of North Shields’ town centre bars, used to work on the oil rigs but at sixty-eight, is now retired. He told me he has been drawing all his life and keeps his hand in by doodling caricatures of interesting people he spots when he’s out and about. He picks up a pencil when he sees someone with a feature he can work off like large glasses or a big moustache – with Sharon, it had been her stand out fish patterned dress. Robin explained that occasionally, people approach him and ask if he can draw them, but he tends to decline, preferring to capture people unawares. He said that as soon as someone catches on they are being drawn, they start to pose and act unnaturally which he feels spoils the end product. Meeting Robin reaffirmed my realisation that there really is creativity everywhere you look in this amazing town – even in the corner booth of your local bar.
