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 Martine McCutcheon
Professional cockney sparrow Martine has acted since childhood. Her big break came when she landed the role of Tiffany in EastEnders in 1994. Since leaving the soap, she's had a number one single, and played Eliza in award-winning musical My Fair Lady. She returned to the BBC with a guest role in series 4 of Spooks.
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Martine's best known for playing Tiffany Mitchell, neé Raymond in EastEnders. Joining in 1994, her character had an eventful four year stint on the soap. Highlights included marrying Grant Mitchell and having baby Courtney with him, chucking Grant after he slept with her mum, and going out with Beppe Di Marco.
Her character finally died tragically in 1998 after being knocked down by Frank Butcher outside the Queen Vic as she chased after Grant to grab her baby back from him.
After seven years away, Martine returned to the BBC to guest star as waitress Tash, an unwitting witness to terrorists, in the opening two-parter of Spooks series 4. Talking aboutthe part, she said, "There aren't many roles where you're working in a coffee shop one minute and you're tied to a bomb the next. I thought it was quite a challenge."
Her TV debut was in 1989 BBC children's comedy series Bluebirds, in which Barbara Windsor also appeared. She had small roles in two episodes of The Bill* before joining EastEnders.
After leaving EastEnders, Martine launched a singing career that netted her five top ten hits. Debut single Perfect Moment entered the charts at number one in April 1999. Her first album, You, Me and Us went double platinum, but her follow-up, Musicality didn't fare so well. Martine and her record company EMI eventually parted company. She also hosted the National Music Awards in 2002.
Martine starred in the Richard Curtis 2003 film Love, Actually. She played a working-class House of Commons teagirl who's surprised when the Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) falls for her. Her co-stars in the film included Bill Nighy, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Alan Rickman* and Emma Thompson. Martine headed off to America in the wake of the film's success, but a Hollywood career sadly failed to materialise.
A revival of the musical My Fair Lady* saw Martine take to the stage in 2001. Her performance as the lead, Eliza Doolittle, won her a Laurence Olivier Award*, for a performance at the National Theatre*. However, her time in the show was dogged by illness, and her understudy ended up performing three more shows than Martine herself!
She's been quite a fixture of the talk and panel show circuit, appearing on TV programmes such as Never Mind The Buzzcocks, What Not To Wear On The Red Carpet, Jerry Springer*, Graham Norton*, The Paul O'Grady Show* and Loose Women.
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Martine trained at the Italia Conti acting school, and appeared in several billboard adverts as a child.
Martine once toured with East 17, as part of girl group Milan. She also appeared in the video for Caribbean Blue by Enya, playing a fairy.
Among the men she's been romantically linked with are EastEnders co-star Paul Nicholls, snooker player Ronnie O'Sullivan, and Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall.
Her autobiograpy is titled Who Does She Think She Is and was published in October 2000. A second autobiographical volume, Behind the Scenes, A Personal Diary came out in 2003, and features a picture of her naked bottom. Saucy!
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| Personal Details |
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She was born Martine Ponting on 14th May 1976 in Hackney, East London.
She had a difficult childhood due to her abusive father. After her mother fled from him with the two year old Martine, he managed to track them down and threaten them several times.
She has two siblings, brother L J and sister Isla.
* The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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