Victoria Lee McClure is a British actress, model and presenter. She is best known for her roles as Detective Inspector Kate Fleming in the BBC series Line of Duty and Lol Jenkins in Shane Meadows' film This Is England and its Channel 4 spin-off mini-series This is England '86, This Is England '88, and This Is England '90. Before This is England, she appeared in another of Meadows' films, A Room for Romeo Brass, where she played Ladine. She won the RTS Award and BAFTA Television Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Lol in This is England '86 in 2011. McClure is also well known for her role as Karen White in ITV's Broadchurch, and other roles such as in Filth and Wisdom, Hummingbird, Svengali, and The Replacement.
Early life
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 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. 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.
Career
Aged 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. 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". 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. McClure co-starred in the London-based comedy filmFilth and Wisdom, the first feature film directed by pop singer 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. She was approached and auditioned for a role in ITV soap Emmerdale, but decided to turn it down. She later joined the cast of the British police proceduraltelevision series, Line of Duty in 2012 as DI Kate Fleming, continuing in the role in Series 2, Series 3, Series 4 and Series 5. In 2013, she appeared in the British action-thriller filmHummingbird opposite Jason Statham. In July 2016, she appeared as Winnie Verloc in The Secret Agent, based on the eponymous novel by Joseph Conrad. 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. McClure did voiceover work for the More4 show A Year on the Farm in August 2017.
Video and other work
She was also featured alongside Kaya Scodelario, Abbey Butler, Andy Crane and Paul Young in Plan B's music video "She Said". In 2010, McClure appeared in a number of promotional short films for the English cosmetics brand Illamasqua. In 2012, McClure appeared in the video for Jake Bugg's song "Two Fingers" along with Line of Duty co-star Craig Parkinson. On 18 March 2014, McClure appeared on BBC Radio 1's Innuendo Bingo.
Nottingham tram
named a tram after her. On her maiden trip she was asked to leave the tram for fare evasion – having been offered a free ride, she did not have a ticket.
Personal life
McClure lives in Nottingham with Welsh director Jonny Owen. On 28 December 2017, they announced their engagement.
