Clare Buckfield (born 10 April 1976) is an English actress, best known for playing the role of Jenny Porter in the BBC sitcom ''

2point4 Children ''2point4 Children'' is a BBC Television sitcom that was created and written by Andrew Marshall. It follows the lives of the Porters, a seemingly average, working-class London family whose world is frequently turned upside-down by bad luck and ...

'' for most of the nineties and Natasha Stevens in the CBBC series '' Grange Hill''.

Biography

From an early age, both she and her identical twin sister Julie harboured ambitions to be actresses, leading their mother to hire her daughters an agent. As a result, Clare and Julie appeared in local productions and were offered modelling work. A graduate of the Sylvia Young Theatre School in London, Buckfield originally auditioned for the part of Natalie Stevens in BBC 1 teenage soap '' Grange Hill''. She lost out to her twin sister Julie who was auditioning for the part of Chrissy Mainwaring, but Clare eventually won the role of Natasha Stevens in 1992. She appeared in '' Grange Hill'' for two years. Clare and Julie competed again to replace

Clare Woodgate Georgina Elaine Cates (born Clare Elaine Woodgate; 14 January 1975) is an English film and television actress. Life and career Born Clare Elaine Woodgate in Colchester, Essex, Cates attended Colchester County High School for Girls and broke i ...

as character Jenny Porter in ''2point4children'', but this time Clare got the part over Julie. Clare appeared in the series until 1999. In 2003, Buckfield played the role of Sandy in ''Grease'', opposite

Noel Sullivan Noel Sullivan (born 28 July 1980 as Noel John Hayes) is a Welsh singer and actor. He was a member of the British pop group Hear'Say. Like the other members of the group, he won his part through the talent show ''Popstars''. Early life Sulliv ...

as Danny and Amanda-Jane Manning as Rizzo at The Jersey Opera House. In 2004, Buckfield landed the role of Katy Bell in ''

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'', a program intended to fill the void left by '' London's Burning'' on ITV1. The series was not recommissioned beyond its initial seven-episode run. She has also appeared in episodes of '' Dangerfield'', '' Doctors'', and ''

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''. She did the voice-over of Samantha in the

PG Tips PG Tips is a brand of tea in the United Kingdom manufactured by Ekaterra. Brand name In the 1930s, Brooke Bond launched PG Tips in the tea market in the United Kingdom under the name ''Pre-Gestee'' - a variant of the original name "Digestive Tea. ...

television commercials and appeared in the Big Finish

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audio of '' The One Doctor'', alongside 6th Doctor Colin Baker, as Sally Ann-Stubbins in 2001. In 2006 she returned to ''Doctor Who'', starring alongside Paul McGann and Stephen Gately in the radio adventure ''

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'' and then again in 2007 (released in 2008) in '' Dead London''. She most recently played Audrey in '' The Little Shop of Horrors'' (2009 UK Tour).

''Dancing on Ice''

Buckfield gained second place in the second series of the hit ITV show ''

Dancing on Ice ''Dancing on Ice'' is a British television series presented by Phillip Schofield alongside Holly Willoughby from 2006 to 2011, who then returned in 2018, and Christine Bleakley from 2012 to 2014. The series features celebrities and their profe ...

''. Her partner was the Russian skating star Andrei Lipanov. She was the last female celebrity contestant left in the competition and was in the final along with rugby ace Kyran Bracken and singer Duncan James. The final requirement was for the celebrities to fly over the ice using a harness, at which Buckfield excelled with the joint highest result of the series at 29.5. The final took place on Saturday, 17 March 2007 and Buckfield came second. During the series, she experienced several injuries, the most serious being a pulled

muscle Skeletal muscles (commonly referred to as muscles) are organs of the vertebrate muscular system and typically are attached by tendons to bones of a skeleton. The muscle cells of skeletal muscles are much longer than in the other types of muscl ...

underneath her ribcage. Buckfield was polled in the final two twice during the series but was saved from eviction by the judges. She appeared in the Dancing On Ice Live Tour which saw past celebrities from the two series battle it out again on the ice. Buckfield has also taken part in the Sense City Ice Skate challenge in support of the Sense-National Deafblind and Rubella Association.

Personal life

In 2003, she broke up with her long-term boyfriend Declan Donnelly.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Buckfield, Clare 1976 births Living people Actresses from London British identical twins English television actresses Alumni of the Sylvia Young Theatre School Identical twin actresses English twins