Vicky McClure

Vicky Lee McClure was born on 8 May 1983 in the Wollaton area of Nottingham.[1] Her father was a joiner and her mother was a hairdresser. She has an older sister, Jenny. McClure was educated at Fernwood School. From age three she took dance lessons, and auditioned for the Central Junior Television Workshop at age 11. Unsuccessful on her first attempt, she was recalled a week later after another child dropped out.[2] While there, she was coached and mentored by fellow Nottingham-born actress Samantha Morton. McClure successfully auditioned for entry to the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts aged 16, but her family could not raise the tuition fees, and she remained at the Workshop.[2]

Aged 15 she was asked to audition for a part in Shane Meadows's independent film A Room for Romeo Brass.[3] The youngest to audition, she was called back, and gained the role of Ladine Brass. She secured an agent, but achieved no parts for four years. After starting a drama foundation course at the local college on leaving school, she left to work in retail, initially for H. Samuel and then Dorothy Perkins. Aged 19 she gave up her acting ambitions for 12 months, but then took a part-time office job in Nottingham to allow her to audition for parts, mostly in London.[2]

After an 18 month period of taking walk-on parts in soaps and daytime TV, McClure then worked on the This is England film and mini-series from 2006 until 2015, portraying the role of Lorraine "Lol" Jenkins. In an April 2007 interview with Time Out, McClure spoke of Meadows approaching her for the role while she was in a pub with Andrew Shim.[4] She described the making of the film, which was highly improvised, as "constant laughing and jokes". In 2011, her performance as Lorraine "Lol" Jenkins in This is England '86[5] won her the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress and the Royal Television Society Award for Best Actress.[1]

McClure co-starred in the London-based comedy film Filth and Wisdom, the first feature film directed by pop singer Madonna.[6] She admitted to being slightly star-struck upon first meeting Madonna, "I tried to act as cool as possible but inside I'm like, "Oh my God; there's Madonna!" You can't help it".[7] The film premièred at the Berlin International Film Festival on 13 February 2008.

She was approached and auditioned for a role in ITV soap Emmerdale, but decided to turn it down.[2] She later joined the cast of the British police procedural television series, Line of Duty in 2012 as DI Kate Fleming, continuing in the role in Series 2 (2014), Series 3 (2016), Series 4 (2017) and Series 5 (2019).[8] In 2013, she appeared in the British action-thriller film Hummingbird opposite Jason Statham.

In July 2016, she appeared as Winnie Verloc in The Secret Agent, based on the eponymous novel by Joseph Conrad.[9]

She starred in the BBC TV thriller The Replacement in 2017.

In February 2017, she made her professional stage début at Nottingham Playhouse in the fortieth anniversary production of Touched by Stephen Lowe.[10]

McClure did voiceover work for the More4 show A Year on the Farm in August 2017.

McClure lives in Nottingham with Welsh director Jonny Owen.[16][17] On 28 December 2017, they announced their engagement.[18]

• Vicky McClure Official Website
• Vicky McClure at the British Film Institute
• Vicky McClure at IMDb