Clare Grogan
Encyclopedia
Clare Grogan is a Scottish
actress and singer. She is sometimes credited as C. P. Grogan.
. She was discovered by film director
Bill Forsyth
when she was waitressing
in a Glasgow
restaurant. She subsequently shot to fame at the age of 19 in Forsyth's film
Gregory's Girl
.
, originally a five-piece that included Johnny McElhone
(later of the Scottish rock band
Texas
), whom she met while studying for her Highers
. It became a four-person band with the departure of two members and the addition of Stephen Lironi, who played both guitar
and drums
. The band had a string of hits in the early 1980s, including "Happy Birthday", "Don't Talk To Me About Love", "I Could Be Happy" and "See Those Eyes". The group split up after the release of their third album, Bite
(1983).
Grogan later attempted a solo
career, but after her single
"Love Bomb" tanked in 1987, her album Trash Mad was never released. Grogan formed Universal Love School in 1989 with Lironi, performing a series of gigs around the UK. However, it was short-lived and produced no hit singles. In 2000 she contributed vocals to the song "Night Falls Like a Grand Piano" on The 6ths
' album Hyacinths and Thistles. She recorded a version of "Angels With Dirty Faces
" for the Frankie Miller
tribute album. The track "Her Hooped Dream" appears on The Ultimate Celtic Album.
In 2002, Grogan performed as "Altered Images" on the Here and Now Tour
which featured other famous acts from the 1980s. She performed on similar tours in 2005, 2008 and 2009.
as the character Susan in 1981. Obliged to appear as C. P. Grogan because there was already a member of Equity named Claire Grogan (the other Claire Grogan went on to become a photographer), she would later drop the i from her first name. Grogan almost lost the part after being cast when she suffered a severe facial wound in a Glasgow pub just weeks prior to filming. However, director Bill Forsyth
refused to recast the role and Grogan was filmed mostly profile; when filmed in close up, makeup artists covered Grogan's scar with morticians wax.
In 1984 she played Charlotte in Forsyth's Comfort and Joy. In 1985 she was the receptionist in the BBC Television
version of Blott on the Landscape
. She had a recurring role playing Dave Lister's would-be love-interest, Kristine Kochanski
, in series 1, 2 and 6 of the TV show Red Dwarf
. When offered the same part in series 7, she declined in order to focus on stage acting and singing, and was replaced by Chloë Annett
. Grogan has also appeared in Father Ted
(episode "Rock-a-Hula Ted
") and in EastEnders
as Ian Beale
's love interest, Ros Thorne (1997–1998).
She has also been a talk show host in the UK. She played control-freak office manager Sandra Reeves in the 2006 film The Penalty King. She appears in the video for Peter Kay
and Matt Lucas
' charity single "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)", recorded for Comic Relief's Red Nose Day 2007. She also played Danny's mother in Legit
.
Grogan appearred in the TV series Skins
, as Shelley, the mother of Mini McGuinness.
Grogan played the part of Rita in a stage adaptation of Educating Rita
at Dundee Repertory Theatre in 1987.
, most often for Nemone
and sometimes Liz Kershaw
.
in 1994. The couple live in Haringey
. In 2005, after six miscarriages and four failed IVF attempts, they adopted
a daughter, Lucia.
Grogan sports a prominent scar on the left side of her face. She was a bystander in the Pollok Inn
, a Glasgow pub, at the age of 19 when a fight broke out between several patrons and a broken bottle was hurled in her direction as she was fleeing. She was severely injured and states that her parents still find it hard to read about the incident. She began filming Gregory's Girl just three months after the accident.
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
actress and singer. She is sometimes credited as C. P. Grogan.
Early life
Grogan and her two sisters all attended the Notre Dame Convent SchoolNotre Dame High School (Glasgow)
Notre Dame High School is a public Roman Catholic girls secondary school located on Observatory Road in Glasgow, Scotland, and founded in 1897....
. She was discovered by film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
Bill Forsyth
Bill Forsyth
Bill Forsyth is a Scottish film director and writer, noted for his commitment to national film-making.Forsyth first came to attention with a low-budget film, That Sinking Feeling, made with youth theatre actors and featuring a cameo appearance by the Edinburgh gallery owner Richard Demarco...
when she was waitressing
Waiter
Waiting staff, wait staff, or waitstaff are those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending customers — supplying them with food and drink as requested. Traditionally, a male waiting tables is called a "waiter" and a female a "waitress" with the gender-neutral version being a "server"...
in a Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
restaurant. She subsequently shot to fame at the age of 19 in Forsyth's film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
Gregory's Girl
Gregory's Girl
Gregory's Girl is a 1981 Scottish coming-of-age romantic comedy film written and directed by Bill Forsyth.The film is set in and around a state secondary school in the Abronhill district of Cumbernauld. It features Gordon John Sinclair, Dee Hepburn, and Clare Grogan, among others...
.
Singing career
Grogan developed her singing career as the lead singer of Altered ImagesAltered Images
Altered Images were an early 1980s Scottish New Wave / post-punk band. Led by lead singer Clare Grogan, the band branched into mainstream pop music, and had a string of chart hits between 1981 and 1983.-Early career:...
, originally a five-piece that included Johnny McElhone
Johnny McElhone
John Francis "Johnny" McElhone is a Scottish guitarist and songwriter.Unusually, he has played with three, otherwise unconnected rock bands, who have all enjoyed a Top 20 presence in the UK Singles Chart. Indeed, two of those groups have repeated that feat in the UK Albums Chart...
(later of the Scottish rock band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...
Texas
Texas (band)
Texas are a Scottish pop band from Bearsden, near Glasgow, Scotland. They were founded by Johnny McElhone in 1986 and feature Sharleen Spiteri on lead vocals. Texas made their performing debut in March 1988 at Scotland's University of Dundee...
), whom she met while studying for her Highers
Higher (Scottish)
In Scotland the Higher is one of the national school-leaving certificate exams and university entrance qualifications of the Scottish Qualifications Certificate offered by the Scottish Qualifications Authority. It superseded the old Higher Grade on the Scottish Certificate of Education...
. It became a four-person band with the departure of two members and the addition of Stephen Lironi, who played both guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
and drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
. The band had a string of hits in the early 1980s, including "Happy Birthday", "Don't Talk To Me About Love", "I Could Be Happy" and "See Those Eyes". The group split up after the release of their third album, Bite
Bite (album)
Bite is the third and final studio album by the Scottish band Altered Images. It was released in 1983 and was produced by famed producers Mike Chapman and Tony Visconti...
(1983).
Grogan later attempted a solo
Solo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
career, but after her single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
"Love Bomb" tanked in 1987, her album Trash Mad was never released. Grogan formed Universal Love School in 1989 with Lironi, performing a series of gigs around the UK. However, it was short-lived and produced no hit singles. In 2000 she contributed vocals to the song "Night Falls Like a Grand Piano" on The 6ths
The 6ths
The 6ths is a band created by Stephin Merritt, also the prime mover behind The Magnetic Fields, The Gothic Archies and Future Bible Heroes.One story has it that the band was conceived when Merritt, observing that there was no tribute album dedicated to him, decided to make one himself...
' album Hyacinths and Thistles. She recorded a version of "Angels With Dirty Faces
Angels with Dirty Faces
Angels with Dirty Faces is a 1938 American gangster film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, the Dead End Kids and Humphrey Bogart, along with Ann Sheridan and George Bancroft...
" for the Frankie Miller
Frankie Miller
Frankie Miller is a Scottish rock singer-songwriter, who had his biggest success in the 1970s. Miller was raised at Colvend Street, Glasgow with his parents, Cathy and Frank, and elder sisters Letty and Anne. Miller attended Sacred Heart Primary school. He was an altar boy in Sacred Heart Chapel...
tribute album. The track "Her Hooped Dream" appears on The Ultimate Celtic Album.
In 2002, Grogan performed as "Altered Images" on the Here and Now Tour
Here and Now Tour
The Here and Now Tour is a series of concert tours, which began in 2001, featuring groups and singers famous in the 1980s. The Tour takes in arenas and theatres around the UK and still runs today. The tours are organised by Tony Denton Promotions...
which featured other famous acts from the 1980s. She performed on similar tours in 2005, 2008 and 2009.
Acting career
Her breakthrough role was in Gregory's GirlGregory's Girl
Gregory's Girl is a 1981 Scottish coming-of-age romantic comedy film written and directed by Bill Forsyth.The film is set in and around a state secondary school in the Abronhill district of Cumbernauld. It features Gordon John Sinclair, Dee Hepburn, and Clare Grogan, among others...
as the character Susan in 1981. Obliged to appear as C. P. Grogan because there was already a member of Equity named Claire Grogan (the other Claire Grogan went on to become a photographer), she would later drop the i from her first name. Grogan almost lost the part after being cast when she suffered a severe facial wound in a Glasgow pub just weeks prior to filming. However, director Bill Forsyth
Bill Forsyth
Bill Forsyth is a Scottish film director and writer, noted for his commitment to national film-making.Forsyth first came to attention with a low-budget film, That Sinking Feeling, made with youth theatre actors and featuring a cameo appearance by the Edinburgh gallery owner Richard Demarco...
refused to recast the role and Grogan was filmed mostly profile; when filmed in close up, makeup artists covered Grogan's scar with morticians wax.
In 1984 she played Charlotte in Forsyth's Comfort and Joy. In 1985 she was the receptionist in the BBC Television
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...
version of Blott on the Landscape
Blott on the Landscape
Blott on the Landscape is a novel written in 1975 by Tom Sharpe. It was adapted into a 6-part television series for the BBC in 1985.-Plot:The story revolves around the proposed construction of a motorway through Cleene Gorge in rural South Worfordshire...
. She had a recurring role playing Dave Lister's would-be love-interest, Kristine Kochanski
Kristine Kochanski
Kristine Z. Kochanski is a fictional character from the British science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf. Kochanski was the first console officer in the navigation chamber on board the spaceship Red Dwarf...
, in series 1, 2 and 6 of the TV show Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...
. When offered the same part in series 7, she declined in order to focus on stage acting and singing, and was replaced by Chloë Annett
Chloë Annett
Chloë Victoria Annett is an English actress, best known for her role in series 7 and 8 of the British sitcom Red Dwarf.-Early life and family:...
. Grogan has also appeared in Father Ted
Father Ted
Father Ted is a comedy series set in Ireland that was produced by Hat Trick Productions for British broadcaster Channel 4. Written jointly by Irish writers Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan and starring a predominantly Irish cast, it originally aired over three series from 21 April 1995 until 1 May...
(episode "Rock-a-Hula Ted
Rock-a-Hula Ted
"Rock-a-Hula Ted", a.k.a. "Lovely Girls", is the 7th episode of the second series of Channel 4 sitcom Father Ted, and the 13th episode overall.-Synopsis:...
") and in EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
as Ian Beale
Ian Beale
Ian Albert Beale is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Adam Woodyatt. He is the longest-serving character and the only remaining original character to have appeared continuously since the first episode on 19 February 1985...
's love interest, Ros Thorne (1997–1998).
She has also been a talk show host in the UK. She played control-freak office manager Sandra Reeves in the 2006 film The Penalty King. She appears in the video for Peter Kay
Peter Kay
Peter John Kay is an English comedian, writer, actor, director and producer. His work includes That Peter Kay Thing , Phoenix Nights , Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere , Britain's Got the Pop Factor... and other independent productions which have included two sell out tours.-Early career:Peter Kay...
and Matt Lucas
Matt Lucas
Matthew Richard "Matt" Lucas is an English comedian, screenwriter and actor best known for his acclaimed work with David Walliams in the television show Little Britain; as well as for his portrayals of the scorekeeping baby George Dawes in the comedy panel game Shooting Stars, Tweedledee and...
' charity single "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)", recorded for Comic Relief's Red Nose Day 2007. She also played Danny's mother in Legit
Legit (TV series)
Legit was a Scottish sitcom produced by The Comedy Unit, written by Robert Florence and Iain Connell and broadcast on BBC One Scotland. The pilot episode aired on 16 September 2006 to much critical acclaim and positive reviews. The first series started on the September 7, 2007 with the pilot...
.
Grogan appearred in the TV series Skins
Skins (TV series)
Skins is a BAFTA award-winning British teen drama that follows a group of teenagers in Bristol, South West England, through the two years of college. The controversial plot line explores issues such as dysfunctional families, mental illness , adolescent sexuality, substance abuse and death...
, as Shelley, the mother of Mini McGuinness.
Grogan played the part of Rita in a stage adaptation of Educating Rita
Educating Rita
Educating Rita is a stage comedy by British playwright Willy Russell. It is a play for two actors set entirely in the office of an Open University lecturer....
at Dundee Repertory Theatre in 1987.
Radio
Grogan sometimes covers for presenters on BBC 6 MusicBBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music is one of the BBC's digital radio stations, was launched on 11 March 2002 and originally codenamed Network Y. It was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years....
, most often for Nemone
Nemone
Nemone Metaxas is a British DJ, Radio Presenter, Television Presenter/Producer and former athlete of Greek descent.Her family's Greek ancestral village is in Sekhia and the family name is `Anastasakis'....
and sometimes Liz Kershaw
Liz Kershaw
Liz Kershaw is a UK radio broadcaster.-Early career:The elder sister of fellow broadcaster and world music exponent Andy Kershaw, she began her career as a pop journalist for the Yorkshire Post before joining Leeds station Radio Aire, where her brother also worked for a time.While in Leeds, she...
.
Literature
Grogan's first book was published in October 2008, a children's novel (aimed at age 7 and up) titled Tallulah and the Teenstars, about a girl who forms a pop band.Personal life
Grogan married band mate Stephen Lironi in GlasgowGlasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
in 1994. The couple live in Haringey
London Borough of Haringey
The London Borough of Haringey is a London borough, in North London, classified by some definitions as part of Inner London, and by others as part of Outer London. It was created in 1965 by the amalgamation of three former boroughs. It shares borders with six other London boroughs...
. In 2005, after six miscarriages and four failed IVF attempts, they adopted
Adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
a daughter, Lucia.
Grogan sports a prominent scar on the left side of her face. She was a bystander in the Pollok Inn
Pollok
Pollok is a large district on the south-western side of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It was built to house families from the overcrowded inner city...
, a Glasgow pub, at the age of 19 when a fight broke out between several patrons and a broken bottle was hurled in her direction as she was fleeing. She was severely injured and states that her parents still find it hard to read about the incident. She began filming Gregory's Girl just three months after the accident.