Vicky McClure is deservedly recognised as one of the best-known and critically-acclaimed actresses in the country – but she also has a very talented husband, too…
In our ultimate profile, we tell you how old she is, how she found find fame, where she’s from, and the secret heartache behind one of her TV projects.
Over the course of her career, she’s starred in some of the biggest dramas around, including Line of Duty, Trigger Point, and This is England.
Here’s everything you ever needed to know about Vicky McClure!
Where is Vicky McClure from?
Vicky is from Wollaton, a suburb of Nottingham. And she’s extremely proud of her Nottinghamshire roots.
Talking about the difference between London and Nottingham, she told The Guardian: “You’re all kind of living on top of each other and you don’t really get to know the community in the same way that you would in suburbia.
“I know everyone around here [in Wollaton]. I love my neighbours and everybody’s very normal to me, because I’m normal to them.”
Vicky also remembers a time when she went for an audition in London when she was 16 years old.
“They were awfully posh,” she told The Independent. “And I instantly heard how common I was, so I started to try and talk a bit properly. I remember straight away clocking it and just thinking ‘don’t do it, you’ve got to embrace your accent’.”
How old is she?
Vicky Lee McClure was born Vicky Lee McClure on May 8, 1983, in Wollaton, Nottingham.
That makes her currently 41 years of age. Her first ever film role was when she was 16 in 1999.
Her father was a joiner and her mother was a hairdresser. She also has an older sister called Jenny.
What is Vicky McClure famous for? What has she been in?
When she was 15, Vicky was asked to audition for local director Shane Meadows‘ upcoming independent film, A Room for Romeo Brass. He gave her the role of Ladine.
She – along with the rest of the cast and Meadows himself – was acclaimed by critics and the film became a cult hit.
However, for four years afterwards, Vicky couldn’t find another role. She gave up acting and worked in retail, holding down jobs at shops such as H Samuel and Dorothy Perkins.
But, when she was 19, writer and director Shane Meadows came calling again, this time casting her in the movie, This Is England. Starring alongside the likes of Joseph Gilgun and Stephen Graham, it was a connection that lasted for six years.
This Is England the movie became This Is England the TV series. This Is England ’86, This Is England ’88 and This Is England ’90 followed. Vicky won the BAFTA award for Best Actress for her performance as Lol in This Is England ’86.
An invitation to audition for Emmerdale followed (she turned it down), but she did appear in series 1 of the hit David Tennant and Olivia Colman crime drama Broadchurch. And then, of course, came the juggernaut Line of Duty.
One of the most-watched and most-talked about series in British television history, Vicky played DI Kate Fleming from 2012 to 2021.
In between Line of Duty, Vicky appeared in the moving and powerful BBC documentary Our Dementia Choir, and the subsequent sequel.
She also popped up on Celebrity Gogglebox with Line of Duty pals Adrian Dunbar and Martin Compston. Her role as Lana Washington in Trigger Point followed. She subsequently appeared in Nottingham-based ITV thriller Without Sin, and Mrs Jones in Alex Rider.
In 2024, she portrays Castle Rock Mystery Crew –
Who plays Emma in Insomnia on Paramount+?
Vicky leads the cast of Insomnia as Emma Averill. And it’s yet another chance for the actress to shine in a thriller. This time, she stars opposite the likes of Tom Cullen, Leanne Best, Lyndsey Marshal, and Unforgotten‘s Michelle Bonnard.
The series is adapted from Sarah Pinborough’s book of the same name. It tells the story of successful career woman Emma Averill, who fears she is losing her mind after suffering from sleep deprivation two weeks before turning 40.
Only by investigating the truth of her painful past, can she find the answers to her present…
The official synopsis for the series says: “A couple of weeks before her 40th birthday, Emma stops sleeping – just as her mother had done right before she suffered a violent psychotic breakdown on the night of her own 40th birthday.
“Emma’s mother always told her she’d go the same way, that she had the same ‘bad blood’, and now Emma’s terrified it’s true. As events worsen, Emma’s world starts to unravel, and she realises that only by investigating the truth of her painful past can she find the answers to her present and prevent tragedy from striking a second time.”
Insomnia airs on Paramount+ from Thursday, May 23, 2024.
Can Vicky sing and dance?
From the age of three, Vicky took dance lessons, and auditioned for the prestigious Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts. So dancing has been part of Vicky’s formative years.
In fact, she has previously admitted that she wanted to be a dancer when she was younger. Speaking to the BLANK podcast, she said: “I wanted to do tap, I wanted to do modern. Everything they could throw at me.
“I enjoyed the attention [and] I enjoyed performing for my mum and dad. I always loved pratting about, and dancing got rid of all that energy.”
Vicky also revealed she auditioned for the Royal Ballet! Now, she regularly posts short videos on her Instagram account of her dancing to her favourite tunes.
When it comes to singing, she has produced an Instagram video featuring her and her Line of Duty co-stars Martin Compston and Adrian Dunbar singing together during the filming of series six.
Surely Strictly is next?
Does Vicky McClure have a husband? Does she have kids?
Vicky married long-term partner, Welsh director Jonny Owen, in 2023. They announced their engagement in 2017. They met on the set of 2013 movie, Svengali.
Their original plan was to get married in 2019. However, the couple had to put their wedding on hold due to their busy schedules and the pandemic.
Talking to the Evening Standard, Vicky explained: “It’s been chock-a-block [and] we don’t want to rush and feel like we’re slotting it into a time period. We want time to plan- the amount of things you need to do is frightening.”
She’s is also step-mum to Jonny’s grown-up daughter, Katie, a DJ. Vicky does not have any children of her own.
Vicky McClure and now husband Jonny eventually married in a secret ceremony in Nottingham in August 2023. Fellow Line of Duty stars Martin Compston and Adrian Dunbar were also present for the occasion, as well as Jed Mercurio, actor Craig Parkinson and presenter Paddy McGuinness.
Jonny is a Welsh producer, director, actor and writer. He’s appeared in TV shows including Shameless, Murphy’s Law and My Family. He won a Welsh BAFTA in 2007 for the documentary The Aberfan Disaster, which he co-produced with Judith Davies. He directed the TV series Together Stronger, the film The Three Kings, and I Believe in Miracles.
Before Vicky and Jonny married, he had a “tricky” divorce. Speaking on Elizabeth Day’s How To Fail podcast, Vicky said: “When we first spoke it was on the phone. I came off the phone and I just knew. I absolutely know.”
She then discovered he was “in the middle of a divorce”. Vicky added: “It was tricky. I thought ‘I am scared now, I genuinely feel something I’ve never felt before. He’s a proper man. He’s a grownup.'”
Who is Vicky McClure’s family?
Another man in Vicky’s life is her father Mick, whom she’s really close with and he frequently pops up on her Instagram.
In a recent post, Vicky celebrated her father’s birthday saying: “Happy Birthday Dad!!! I couldn’t love you even more if I tried!! Or look more like you!! Have the best day, best Dad! Xxx.”
She also shares a close bond with her hairdresser mum, Carol, and her elder sister, Jenny.
On International Women’s Day, Vicky shared a selfie of the three of them and captioned it: “Happy International Women’s Day! There are so many special & inspiring women in my life, from family to friends, colleagues to strangers.
“Got each other’s backs all the way. These two have had my back since day one and I’ll always have theirs. Bloody lucky beyond belief. Xxx #mum #sister #sisterhood.”
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Where does Vicky McClure and her husband live?
Vicky and Jonny now live in her home town of Wollaton. She often provides glimpses of life with Jonny inside their house – including her BAFTA trophy on a shelf in the living room.
In another interview with The Guardian, she said about Nottingham: “It’s just the best city, innit?”
And responding to why interviewers are sometimes shocked why she doesn’t live in the capital, she said: “Oh my God, it’s as if I’m living on the moon.
“It makes me laugh that it’s such a big deal. I find it more extreme that Martin Compston lives in Las Vegas. I live in my home town [and] I think people think, ‘Ooh, she’s doing it for effect’.”
Vicky McClure husband: Why weren’t they at the NTA Awards in 2021?
Sadly Vicky couldn’t make the National Television Awards in 2021. Taking to Instagram, she thanked fans for the award Line of Duty won.
“Hello there, I thought I had better do a little video just to say – oh my god thank you so much,” she said in a video.
“Sadly not a glamour NTA moment here but gutted I couldn’t be there. Absolutely gutted. So blessed and so grateful to everybody who voted for the show and everyone who voted for us in the acting category.
“You know we saw that you were all voting and it was so, so beautiful of you all to do that.”
Vicky McClure opens Hogarth Teenage Cancer Trust
In 2013, Vicky opened the Hogarth Teenage Cancer Trust unit at Nottingham City Hospital.
She’s also been an avid supporter of the trust ever since, and they’ve recently announced Vicky as a Teenage Cancer Trust icon.
On the Teenage Cancer Trust website they explain that the new icon role is “for high profile figures across the entertainment industry who have volunteered to give a year of their time to raise funds for its vital support services for young people with cancer aged 13-24 and greater awareness of the huge challenges they face in life”.
Vicky has also launched her own music event, This is Nottingham, in 2021.
The music event was a homage to her BAFTA winning performance in This is England and it helped to raise vital funds for teens with cancer.
Talking about the event, Vicky told Teenage Cancer Trust: “Nottingham is a hotbed of talent from Oscar nominees to Olympic champions to chart toppers, so it feels right that a place with two Teenage Cancer Trust units should be hosting this incredible event.
“I’m so proud to call this city my home. Teenage Cancer Trust was founded on the understanding that young people are special which is why it is so important for this to be a celebration of young people and rising talent”.
What is Vicky McClure’s connection to dementia?
It’s been several years since the Wollaton-born star formed her choir of people living with dementia. In 2022, she reunited with her singers, as well as some new members.
They recorded a charity single, becoming the first dementia choir to record at the legendary Abbey Road studios.
The disease is close to the actress’ heart. She has previously spoken of witnessing dementia first-hand after caring for her grandmother “Nona” Iris, who died in 2015.
She is now a dedicated fundraiser and campaigner for the cause.
Vicky McClure husband: Why did she get an MBE?
Actress Vicky McClure said it was a “surreal” feeling to have been honoured by the King at her Windsor Castle investiture ceremony.
The actress was appointed an MBE for services to drama and charity. It came after she formed a choir to help people with dementia.
She said she felt proud to be “breaking boundaries” with her campaigning and was looking forward to doing more.
Vicky founded the Our Dementia Choir in 2019 after her late grandmother Iris was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and found comfort in music.
How tall is Vicky McClure?
The Line of Duty star revealed her height to everyone on Twitter, after a fan asked how tall she was.
Vicky replied: “5.4. On screen I look like 5.10! 🙂 must be the Doc Martins!”
Read more: These pictures from Vicky McClure’s wedding are so wholesome we’re weeping
Insomnia streams from Thursday, May 23, 2024 on Paramount+.
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