Vicky McClure

Vicky Lee McClure (born 8 May 1983) is an English actress, model and presenter.

Vicky Lee McClure was born on 8 May 1983 in the Wollaton area of Nottingham.

Her father was a joiner and her mother was a hairdresser.

She has an elder sister, Jenny.

McClure was educated at Fernwood School.

From the age of three she took dance lessons, and auditioned for the Central Junior Television Workshop when she was 11.

Unsuccessful on her first attempt, she was recalled a week later after another child dropped out.

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 afford the tuition fees, and she remained at the Workshop.

At 15, she was asked to audition for a part in Shane Meadows's independent film A Room for Romeo Brass.

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.

Before This is England, she appeared in another of Meadows' films, A Room for Romeo Brass (1999), where she played Ladine.

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.

She described the making of the film, which was highly improvised, as "constant laughing and jokes".

McClure is also well known for her role as Karen White in ITV's Broadchurch, and other roles such as in Filth and Wisdom (2008), Hummingbird (2013), Svengali (2013), and The Replacement (2017).

McClure co-starred in the 2008 London-based comedy film Filth and Wisdom, the first feature film directed by Madonna.

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".

The film premièred at the Berlin International Film Festival on 13 February 2008.

McClure was approached and auditioned for a role in ITV soap Emmerdale, but decided to turn it down.

In 2010, McClure appeared in a number of promotional short films for the English cosmetics brand Illamasqua.

She won the RTS Award and British Academy Television Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Lol in This is England '86 in 2011.

In 2011, her performance as Lorraine "Lol" Jenkins in This is England '86 won her the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress and the Royal Television Society Award for Best Actress.

She is known for her roles as Detective Inspector Kate Fleming in the BBC series Line of Duty (2012–2021) and Lol Jenkins in Shane Meadows' film This Is England (2006) and its Channel 4 sequel mini-series This Is England '86 (2010), This Is England '88 (2011), and This Is England '90 (2015).

In 2012 she joined the cast of the British police procedural television series, Line of Duty in 2012 as DC Kate Fleming, continuing in the role in all six series.

She appeared in the 2013 British action-thriller film Hummingbird opposite Jason Statham.

In July 2016, McClure appeared as Winnie Verloc in The Secret Agent, based on the novel of the same name by Joseph Conrad.

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

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

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

In 2019, McClure starred as Nicola in the channel 4 drama I Am... with This is England and Line of Duty co-star and friend, Perry Fitzpatrick.

She received praise for her portrayal of a woman trapped in an emotionally abusive relationship.

Also in 2019, McClure was cast in the TV adaptation of Alex Rider, a series of young adult books by Anthony Horowitz.

In December 2019, McClure made a brief appearance as herself in the popular internet comedy series on YouTube, Charity Shop Sue, based in Bulwell, Nottinghamshire.

Since 2022, McClure has starred in Trigger Point, an ITV series, as a bomb disposal expert in London.

McClure was also featured alongside Kaya Scodelario, Abbey Butler, Andy Crane and Paul Young in Plan B's music video "She Said".

As of 2020, she plays Mrs. Jones, the deputy head of Mi6 in the show.