Vicky McClure In This Is England
After the announcement that Shane Meadows’ controversial film This Is England was to get a number of TV follow-ups, few would have predicted who would have been the second breakout star (after Stephen Graham) from the grim 80’s based drama.
Since then though, we have learnt to never underestimate Vicky McClure.
The announcement of her involvement in upcoming ITV drama Broadchurch will see her continue her increasingly rapid rise up the showbiz ladder.
Not that she can get that much higher after her victory at last year's Baftas.
Having been given the lead storyline in This Is England 86, McClure shined as Lol, passing a test that could have broken lesser actor’s careers with flying colours.
Despite massive praise, it all came as a surprise to McClure, as after collecting her award, she said that "There was always a chance but never in a million years did I expect that to happen."
Another product of Nottingham's increasingly prestigious Television Academy (which has also seen success with Misfit's Lauren Socha and Skin's Jack O’Connell), McClure’s perfected the grounded, realistic acting style that's faired her so well.
She reprised her role in the 1988 based sequel, again bringing the troubled Lol to the forefront of the show despite meaning to be a more background figure this time. Another year, another Bafta nomination, although she lost out this year to Emily Watson.
It's not just Shane Meadows who sees her ability, McClure's now leading an all-out assault on the BBC. Last year she appeared in BBC drama Stolen, has just been in one of the True Love stories and is now heading up new police drama Line of Duty.
The amazing thing is that McClure managed to put in a Bafta winning performance all while holding down an office job. Until 2010, she worked for a property valuation company to support her acting.
She's not even being drawn in my the bright lights of London, with her telling the BBC back at her Bafta acceptance "I'm not moving from Nottingham, it's where I'm born and bred. It's a city I'm very proud of."
Despite having said in interviews that she's quite happy to be 'normal', it looks like that's going to become a whole lot harder to be. The movies have come a' knocking.
With both comedy Svengali with Martin Freeman (a largely new area for McClure) and Jason Statham toting actioner Hummingbird coming out in 2013, the entire world's going to see why this Nottingham girl's got big things ahead of her.
FemaleFirst Cameron Smith
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