Articles - Sarah Alexander

The comic actress talks to Graham Keal

Without wishing to sound too much of a Swiss Toni, there's a pleasing symmetry about seeing a beautiful woman driving a beautiful car. And if the car is a classic Mercedes roadster, the woman is comic actress Sarah Alexander and the wind is streaming through her long blonde hair, so much the better.

 

All these factors came together on a sunny day in south London, when Sarah made acquaintance with a stunning 1968 280 SL in unblemished light blue metallic at Silver Arrows, Michael Lavers's long-established classic Mercedes dealership in Putney.

 

Sarah was well on her way to being seduced by the gorgeous machine. But the practical benefits of her current R-reg Mercedes 230 SLK are hard to ignore.

 

"The older Mercedes is absolutely beautiful," she says. "It's got that lovely purring feeling as the engine ticks over, which you just don't get in a modern car. It's got personality - mine's boring in comparison.

 

"I floored it a little bit when we drove down by the river, just to get the wind in my hair, and I'm very tempted, I have to say. The only reason I'm not handing over my Visa card now is the new-car-versus-old thing - will it be as practical, reliable, all the boring things? I know my heating works, I've got air-con - I just need to think about all those aspects."

 

At least the eye-watering prospect of a £30,000 credit card bill doesn't spook her, but she seems as confident and spirited in life as she does in Coupling, which recently completed its fourth series on BBC2.

 

Sarah, who is also a leading light of C4's brand new medical comedy Green Wing, has firm views on cars, especially the one she drove for another sitcom, The Worst Week of My Life, seen on BBC1 earlier this year.

 

"It was a Renault Mégane, which I absolutely hated because it had all these gadgets. First of all, there's no key. You put in a card to start the car, but then you have to take it out again, so it's lying around the dashboard and you have to put it back in to turn off. The whole performance with the bloody card drove me mad.

 

"And they have automatic lights that come on as it starts getting dark, which I just find irritating. I want to decide for myself when to turn the lights on. And I can't bear all that ringing that goes on, warning you to do up your seat-belt or take off the handbrake."

 

Sarah wasn't always so assertive, though she was an eager young pupil at Mr Thompson's driving school back home in Barnes, south London.

 

"The provisional licence was there on the mat on my 17th birthday. Ten driving lessons were booked, and that was all I needed. I passed straight after. I was determined."

 

Nights out in London for sixth-former Sarah had meant a number nine bus ride followed by the Tube: "It was a bit of a schlep. Being able to drive meant freedom, and I could share my mother's car so I had access to wheels."

 

Both Sarah and her Mum's Toyota Corolla survived a dangerously close encounter with a truck soon after the L-plates came off: "I was carted around Wandsworth Bridge roundabout by a lorry that attached itself to me. That was when I realised that I'd have to drive differently, be slightly more aggressive. My theory is that you learn to pass your test then relearn to drive in London"

 

The shared Corolla gave way to a battered VW Beetle that a friend gave her. "It was a bit of a rustbucket but it was absolutely fantastic to tear around in as an 18-year-old."

 

When the Beetle fell apart, Sarah graduated to a black three-door Golf with a sporty feel ("It wasn't a GTI but it had an 'S' on it… I'm not really technical") and an electric sunroof, swapping that for her SLK three years ago.

Given her 16 years' driving and an unmarked licence, Sarah's motoring history seems uneventful, but her job and her taste for adventure created other opportunities.

 

In the early 1990s, for example, when London Weekend TV featured a Sunbeam Alpine-driving detective named Anna Lee, Sarah's supporting character drove a Porsche 911. "I didn't like it. It was just too loud, too brutal, too much testosterone. I think the old classic Porsches are fantastic, with those lovely curved lines, but I don't like the modern ones at all."

 

She has driven a hired Chevy around LA, piloted a huge SUV through the snow to California's Yosemite National Park and taken an Audi Cabriolet across Spain. Fastest of all was the old Formula One car - she can't recall which one - that she drove around Brands Hatch for a day: "Oh, it was so exciting. I had to have about three cushions behind me to reach the controls but it was incredible, all that noise. About 10 of us were racing against each other and I've got a certificate somewhere with my best lap time. I loved it."

 

Ask about her dream car and she makes slightly unconvincing noises about a Ferrari or an Aston Martin, then gives a heartfelt sigh. "But that little blue Merc would do me fine…"

 

• Sarah Alexander stars in the new Channel 4 medical comedy-drama, Green Wing, on Fridays at 9.30pm.

 

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