From EastEnder to fair lady, Martine McCutcheon has played many parts. Now the Molesey resident is singing again. Jane McGowan listens in
Credit: Sonya Jasinski
It’s been a rollercoaster ride. A cliché, I know, but never more apt than when applied to the life and times of actress and singer turned presenter and novelist, Martine McCutcheon.
In a career spanning 27 years, the Surrey-based star has certainly hit the highs: becoming the nation’s favourite barmaid, Tiffany, in top soap EastEnders; an Olivier Award for her West End performance as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. And the lows: seeing Tiffany unceremoniously killed off; being forced to quit as Eliza amid a few somewhat questionable comments from fellow members of the cast. Then there was her lauded performance in one of the UK film industry’s biggest rom-coms (high), a critically mauled novel (low), bankruptcy (very low) and the many health concerns that have sadly dogged her career.
Thankfully the 41-year-old, who lives in Molesey with her husband and young son, has put all this behind her and she is back showcasing her vocal talents with her album, Lost and Found, and a series of gigs, including a performance at Redhill’s Harlequin Theatre.
“The album started out as something just for me,” she explains. “It’s a much edgier sound. It’s also very honest and some of the songs were written when I was at a difficult place in my life, so I am thrilled that the record industry has embraced it. It’s been a lovely surprise.”
Martine McCutcheon was born in Hackney to mum Jenny and dad Keith in 1976. She has spoken openly about her father, whom she described in a recent interview with the Guardian as both “charismatic” and “handsome”, before revealing that he had threatened to throw her off a balcony when he was high on drugs. But if her dad was far from ideal, her mum more than made up for his paternal inadequacies.
“My mum has just been so supportive all my life,” she says. “She worked three jobs so I could have whatever I needed to make me happy.”
With her home life in turmoil, the young Martine found solace in performing.
“I always loved films and musicals,” she says. “For me dancing and singing was a really great escape from a difficult childhood.”
But it took one of her mum’s friends to spot the youngster’s budding talent, suggesting that Martine audition for a place at stage school.
“None of my family had ever done anything like this, so it was a really big step,” she acknowledges.
After winning a scholarship, Martine enrolled at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts and thrived in the theatrical environment. But little did she know that her big break, when it came, would happen almost literally around the corner from her childhood home.
“I was working in an underwear shop when the chance came to audition for EastEnders,” she laughs. “I had been in a girl band, which had just folded. I was 18 and I felt like such a failure and I was really struggling for money. I’d always thought I would do music, or musicals, so when EastEnders came along I thought: ‘Blimey, I’ve only just got out of the East End. I don’t know if I want to be working there all day.’ But my agent was like: ‘You’ve got no money and it’s a really good part. What on earth are you talking about?’
“I went along and fell in love with Tiffany. I never thought I’d be there for four years, or that there would be such love for this tart with a heart. It was amazing.”
Yet despite Tiffany’s popularity with audiences, BBC bosses decided to kill her off as part of a big Christmas storyline. It was a blow not only for soap fans, but for Martine too, who heard the news via an item on Radio 1.
“I was shocked,” she admits. “In fact I was scared, not because Tiffany was going to be killed off, but because I didn’t know what I was going to do. I panicked. Actually though it was a blessing in disguise. If they’d left her alive, I might have ended up going back when things got hard. The way it was done made me determined to make my career work.”
So Martine turned back to her first love, music, landing a number one single with Perfect Moment and a Top 10 album with her debut, You Me & Us. But although she moved seamlessly from soap star to pop star, chart success proved short-lived.
In 2000, however, the call for which she’d been waiting since childhood finally came: Sir Cameron Mackintosh wanted her to play Eliza Doolittle in the National Theatre’s production of My Fair Lady. Martine was overjoyed, and her casting surely helped in drumming up £5m of advance ticket sales, as her fans rushed to see this real working-class girl transform before their eyes.
But from the outset she was hit by a series of illnesses that blighted her run, leading the legendary producer to remark that she “just wasn’t capable of dealing” with a career on the stage, while her co-star Jonathan Pryce infamously rolled his eyes as she was announced as Best Actress in a Musical at the Olivier Awards.
Today, ever the optimist, Martine shrugs it all off.
“The part is notorious for the amount of singing, and I think the powers that be forget that you’re doing eight shows a week. I was still young, but it would probably have been too much for anyone – even my understudy damaged her voice.”
Needless to say, all this was played out in the full glare of the media. Martine has endured a 10-year battle with ME and was recently diagnosed as suffering from Lyme disease, while her issues with weight have all been very well documented.
“You just have to let it go,” she reflects. “You can’t control what people write about you. They’ll write whatever they want.”
Indeed. During my pre-interview research, I reached page three on Google before encountering a reference to Martine the performer, rather than Martine “reveals new diet secrets”, “on her curves”, “on bankruptcy” and so on. She is not at all surprised.
“It’s really demeaning how the media still treat women, even in this day and age. I have always thought of myself as an attractive woman. Yes, there may be room for improvement; yes, there are parts of me I don’t particularly like. But without that basic confidence in my appearance, in this industry it would have been awful.”
Yet despite her inner strength, the disappointments began to leave their mark.
“I had more or less made up my mind to quit the business when I got asked to be in Love Actually. That was truly a dream come true. To work with Hugh Grant and Richard Curtis was wonderful.”
Her role as Grant’s down-to-earth secretary in the box office smash restored Martine’s confidence in her profession and fellow actors.
“Hugh was so gracious and considerate. He wanted me to shine and you don’t always get that. My first scene was in the airport, when I have to jump on him with my legs straddling him. That kind of broke the ice,” she laughs.
Happily married to musician and producer Jack McManus, Martine has a three-year-old son, Rafferty, the apple of her eye. When not rehearsing or writing, she also enjoys keeping fit and savouring the delights of Surrey.
“We have a little green nearby, where I love to walk and run. Sometimes I have the baby with me in the buggy, so I can get stuff done, but usually walking’s the time that I put my headphones in and listen to my music.”
Which brings us back to her new album, heard peaking earlier this year at No 17.
“Music has always been my first love,” she says. “The acting was a fortunate accident, but the singing is what it’s always been about.”
- Martine’s Up Close and Personal tour is at the Harlequin Theatre in Redhill on Apr 6. Visit: harlequintheatre.co.uk; 01737 276500
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