Sheridan Smith is a familiar face on TV after her roles in hit series such as Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, but she has also been receiving rave reviews on stage, writes Nick Smurthwaite.
So how did a girl who grew up in a village outside Doncaster come to be called Sheridan? "I think because my surname is Smith, my parents thought they'd better give me an unusual first name, something people would remember," the actress explains with a giggle. "Of course it gets abbreviated to Sherry and Shezza by my friends."
In the north of England, Smith's mum and dad are extremely well known in their own right, performing as a country and western singing duo called the Daltons. "When I was little they used to let me go on stage with them sometimes, wearing a little cowboy hat. I always loved being on stage, even though I was never a proper part of the act."
At school, Sheridan Smith was an okay student, despite spending a lot of time "messing about and getting sent out of class". What she really enjoyed was the drama lessons, and invariably found herself cast in the lead in home-grown musical extravaganzas.
It was her drama teacher, Mr Sowerby, who suggested she audition for the National Youth Music Theatre, which is based in London, but holds regional auditions every year. At 13, she travelled to New York with the company to appear in the musical Pendragon. "It was fantastic because I'd never even been on a plane before. I was coming out of the lift one day in my hotel and I saw my mum and dad walking across the foyer. They'd saved up all their money to come and see me, even though I only had a tiny part."
A year later, she was cast as Tallulah - the role played by Jodie Foster in the film - in a stage version of the spoof gangster musical Bugsy Malone, which proved to be a turning point in what was to become her showbiz career. To everyone's amazement, Jeremy James Taylor, the man who ran NYMT, managed to persuade Alan Parker, who famously dislikes the theatre, to let them produce the show in the West End.
At 16, Smith found herself starring in a musical at the Queen's Theatre. "I was so anxious not to let anyone down and to be as professional as I could be. But that didn't mean it wasn't a lot of fun. I came down to London on my own and shared a flat with five other 16-year-olds from the show. Can you imagine? We lived on jam sandwiches and, during the day, we did what we liked.
"I was only being paid the Equity minimum but it seemed like a fortune at the time. I was used to getting pocket money from my mum for doing odd jobs around the house."
As a result of her stand-out performance in Bugsy Malone, favourably reviewed by all the national theatre critics, Smith had no difficulty getting an agent and was snapped up to play Little Red Riding Hood in a revival of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods at the Donmar Warehouse in 1998.
"Into the woods was one of my all time favourite jobs, partly because it is such a great show and partly because I was sharing a dressing room with 11 other actresses, including Sophie Thompson, Jenna Russell and Dilys Laye. The age range was about 17 to 70. I was the youngest, of course. We had so much fun and I learnt so much about the profession from them."
Because she has never been to drama school, Smith has had to learn as she's gone along. "The people I've worked with have been so helpful and generous, giving me loads of useful advice and support. I've watched every single person I've worked with like a hawk, picking up tricks and tips. In some ways I'd like to have done the drama school thing, but friends of mine who went have had mixed reactions. Some really loved it, others hated the whole experience."
Does she think not going to drama school has spurred her on to succeed? "I just think I've been incredibly lucky," she says. "I keep thinking every job will be my last because there are so many talented people out there. I'm not at all aggressive about getting work. I leave all that to my agent. I'd be embarrassed about pushing for a particular job. I'm a total wimp when it comes to pushing myself forward."
This wimp image is at odds with the sharp, assertive types she has played on TV - as Janet in six series of Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, Cleo in Love Soup, and most recently, Michelle in Grownups. Unlike a lot of actors, she's a stranger to unemployment benefit.
Smith's TV break was in The Royle Family, playing Anthony's girlfriend, Emma. Anthony was played by Ralf Little, who also plays her boyfriend in Two Pints of Lager "When I got the part in Two Pints, it was really nice that I already knew Ralf because it is nerve-wracking when you start any new job. I'm always terrified on the first day.
"I've been doing Two Pints since I was 18, so I've kind of grown up with the show, and with the other four. And the fans are amazing. They come and sit in the front row of the studio audience. I've got to know a lot of them. The BBC keeps saying they're not going to do any more, then they get all these letters saying, 'Bring it back', so it just goes on and on.
"I get lovely fan letters, and I'm rubbish at replying. I get my mum to help me out. One of the fans, Sarah, has set up my personal website. I'm so touched that they'd go to all that trouble for little me. I'm so computer illiterate I didn't even know how to find it on the internet!"
In Little Shop of Horrors, she plays Audrey, a voluptuous airhead who dreams of an all-American life on a suburban housing estate. Paul Vale, reviewing for The Stage, wrote: "This young actress has impeccable timing and a winsome appeal that fills the auditorium... in a season dominated by leading ladies, Sheridan Smith leads the way."
"As a kid I always loved the film," she says, "and I always wanted to play Audrey. I have some great songs by Alan Menken, who wrote the music for a lot of the Disney musicals. We did a special performance at a gay club in the West End one Sunday evening and I was determined to treat it like a normal show, but as soon as we started singing Suddenly Seymour there was this sea of screaming gay men, so I started passing the mic round so they could join in."
Smith went into rehearsals for Little Shop of Horrors last autumn, almost as soon as she had finished playing two Shakespeare roles at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre over the summer. She was Bianca in Taming of the Shrew and Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
"I hadn't done any Shakespeare since school, so I'd never been so nervous in my life. I really didn't have a clue, and we were rehearsing both shows at the same time, so I kept thinking I'd get my lines and my characters all mixed up. But the two directors, Ian Talbot and Rachel Kavanaugh, made it so much fun that I soon became more relaxed. once you start to realise what it all means, it's like doing any other play."
Smith's career so far appears seamless, one plum job after another, giving her the kind of experience most actors of her age can only dream of. If it all suddenly ended tomorrow, she says she would probably go home to mum and dad.
"It's a mad lifestyle and it's easy to get carried away by it, so I think it's important to stay close to your loved ones. I don't really enjoy schmoozy showbiz parties. I come over all shy. I feel more comfortable being with my mates down the pub, or having a takeaway pizza at home, watching a video."
Such is the demand for her talents, she doesn't get a lot of time for a private life right now. In addition to Little Shop of Horrors, she has been filming two TV sitcoms back to back - a second series of David Renwick's quirky Love Soup, and BBC3's Grownups. She says she gets by on four hours' sleep and adrenalin.
"I don't have any big hopes or dreams. I'm just enjoying myself while it lasts, and I know that my parents are there for me if and when it all stops. My mum prefers me doing theatre to TV so she can bring a bus party down from the village. My friends call them the SAS - the Sheridan Appreciation Society. She brought 50 kids down from the school where she is a learning support teacher, and afterwards I had to sign autographs for all of them.
"I don't know what I'll do when it finishes in September, I'm loving it so much. I'll probably never work again."
