Margi Clarke

Early life and career

Clarke was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, and brought up in nearby Kirkby. Her public career began in 1978, as a presenter on the late-night entertainment magazine show, What's On, which was just shown in the Granada region. She was known then simply as Margox.

In 1983, Clarke appeared as Fran in two early episodes of the Liverpool-set Channel 4 soap opera Brookside, credited as Margi MacGregor. Her brother Frank wrote her in, because, as she later said, she "had a gas bill which I couldn't pay".

She came to greater notice when she featured in the low-budget film Letter to Brezhnev (1985) about two working class Liverpool girls who meet two Russian sailors. The film was made for approximately £50,000 (Clarke called this "the cocaine budget on Rambo"), and became an international hit. Margi originated her role of Theresa in Letter to Brezhnev a few years earlier when she played the role in a modest run at the Liverpool Playhouse in 1983.

In 1986, at the Evening Standard British Film Awards, Clarke was awarded the prize for "Most Promising Newcomer". She followed this with the European art-house trilogy for the Kaurismäki brothers (Helsinki Napoli All Night Long, I Hired a Contract Killer and L.A. Without a Map).

Film actress and TV presenter

Clarke had a lead role in the films The Dressmaker (1988) and Strike It Rich (1990), and appeared in the Pet Shop Boys' video for their 1987 single, "Rent". She was the stand-in host for Paula Yates on Channel 4's The Tube on several occasions. Clarke was also the voice for the character of "Bixie" in the Weetabix adverts at this time. In the late 1980s, Clarke had a Top Ten hit in the Welsh charts with "Clutter from the Gutter".

In 1989, she was cast as Queenie in the long running BBC series Making Out, set in a Manchester electronics factory and written by Debbie Horsfield. The show ran for three series. In 1991, she returned to presenting, this time on the late night ITV show The Good Sex Guide which gained an audience figures of 13 million. She received a Royal Television Society (RTS) Award for "Best Female Presenter" in 1994. A second series and third series followed. the last entitled The Good Sex Guide Abroad. Clarke turned down an offer to take the series into a late night chat show format, the host eventually being Toyah Willcox.

In 1991 Clarke performed with Half Man Half Biscuit on the single "No Regrets", a cover of the classic song, "Non, je ne regrette rien", by Édith Piaf. At the same year she also portrayed Ronnie O'Dowd, a sexy female boxer in Blonde Fist.

Following the success of The Good Sex Guide, Carlton TV offered Clarke her own day-time show, and the resulting programme, Swank, ran for two series. In 1994, Clarke tried a new venture, stand-up comedy, and took her one-woman show 21st Century Scutt around the country - the tour included a stint at the Edinburgh Film Festival and the Royal Festival Hall on London's South Bank. She was a regular guest on Channel 4's music show The Word, including one occasion where she tricked presenter Terry Christian into showing his testicles in a hidden camera set-up.

Around this time, Clarke's boyfriend was the artist Jamie Reid, and she was paid an undisclosed sum to pose nude while nine months pregnant with their daughter Rowan. The resulting pictures were a response to the recent Vanity Fair spread of actress Demi Moore, in which she was shown nude while also nine months pregnant. The pictures of Clarke were published in Sunday tabloid The Sunday People. She also published her own vegetarian cookery book, Margi Clarke's Better than Sex Cookbook.

Her last role before taking a three-year sabbatical, following the death of her mother and birth of her daughter, was in the BBC1 serial, Soul Survivors co-starring Ian McShane. She returned to acting in 1998, joining the soap opera Coronation Street, playing Jackie Dobbs. She left in 1999, and joined the cast of Five soap opera Family Affairs, staying for just under a year, as well as guesting in an episode of the BBC's Casualty.

She also had roles in two high-profile films in 2002, Revengers Tragedy, directed by Alex Cox and 24 Hour Party People, the biopic of the Factory/Hacienda days in Manchester, which Clarke participated in during her 'Margox' days of the 1970s. The Boys from County Clare feature film followed in 2003, in which she played the role of Dove.

Since 2004

In 2004, Clarke appeared on the Five reality TV show The Farm and had a leading role in the theatrical film School for Seduction co-starring Kelly Brook. In 2006, Clarke had a role in an episode of the Hollyoaks spin-off Hollyoaks: In the City and around the same time she was also a contestant on a celebrity version of the BBC gameshow The Weakest Link.

Clarke is often referred to as "The Queen of Liverpool" by the media. This tag was originally attributed to Clarke by music promoter Malcolm McLaren. In 2005, she began her successful on-line health and beauty range "Soul Rinse" which she runs parallel to her acting career. In 2006/07, she was heard on the airwaves of North-West radio station 105.4 Century Radio as co-presenter of the breakfast show and their late night phone-in shows.

In August 2007, Clarke was a guest on Big Brother's Big Mouth on Channel 4 with Pete Burns, a Liverpool-born friend and performer for many years. At the end of 2007 it was reported in the Liverpool Echo that Clarke would be playing the role of Kath in the Joe Orton play Entertaining Mr Sloane, as part of the city's Capital of Culture celebrations for 2008, and would be writing her memoirs in the near future.

On 11 January 2008, as part of the opening night celebrations of Liverpool's European Capital of Culture year, Clarke was one of around a hundred local celebrities hoisted hidden in a blue container by a crane 30 feet into the air, landing on the main stage at St. George's Hall in the city. The celebrities stepped out of the container marked "Precious Cargo" to rapturous applause. The same evening Clarke appeared as a panel guest on the BBC2 late-night news review show Newsnight, talking about her home town's Capital of Culture celebrations.

In January 2008, Clarke joined Liverpool's newest talk radio station City Talk 105.9, presenting a late night show on Saturday evenings.

Clarke returned to a prime-time starring role in the second series of the British comedy Benidorm on ITV in 2008 and reprised her role as Jackie Dobbs in Coronation Street on 2 January 2009, and again on 22 February 2010.

Also in February 2010, Clarke appeared with her daughter Rowan in an episode of the BBC's Celebrity Cash in the Attic.

Clarke appeared in Scousers in St Helens on 26 October 2010 alongside Tina Malone, Billy Butler and several others. In late 2010, she recorded numerous music tracks such as Like a Memory and Holographic Disco which are now available on iTunes and in November 2010 she released her autobiography "Margi Clarke - Now You See Me". She has also appeared in an episode of the BBC series Waterloo Road in May 2011 and participated in Celebrity MasterChef in 2011. Clarke also appeared in the UK Christmas edition of Come Dine With Me in December 2012.