The eldest of four daughters, Michelle was born in Chigwell, Essex. Her father Joseph was a fish trader at Billingsgate Fish Market and her mother Shirley an actress. One of her sisters is the actress and writer Ann Michelle. While her parents were at work, they employed an au-pair girl to look after Michelle and her three sisters; the girl they employed was future Hollywood actress Elke Sommer.[2]
Although the late sixties and seventies gave her success, Michelle gained significant attention, particularly in Ireland, after appearing as Sally O'Brien in a string of high-profile adverts for Harp Lager in the early 1980s. The slogan "Sally O'Brien and the way she might look at you" became synonymous with the company and brought Michelle to viewers' attention. There was a small outcry when it was revealed that the actress that played Sally O'Brien was in fact English, not Irish. Following on from this success, Michelle played the part of Millie in Priest of Love (1981) alongside Ava Gardner, John Gielgud and Ian McKellen before appearing in a second episode of The Professionals, in which she played Tina, the girlfriend of an organisedcrime boss played by John Junkin in the episode The Untouchables.
However, Michelle's big break was when she was offered the part of Yvette Carte-Blanche in the BBCsitcom'Allo 'Allo!, produced and written by David Croft. Croft had remembered Michelle playing the French maid robot in an episode of his previous sitcom Come Back Mrs. Noah and offered her the role. Michelle played Yvette in all eighty-five episodes of the series from 1982 to 1992 as well as reprising the role in numerous stage plays based on the series. Although she was achieving high success, Michelle maintained an acting career alongside 'Allo, 'Allo!, and had roles in The Last Days of Pompeii, Cannon and Ball, The Little and Large Show and two episodes of the successful department store sitcom Are You Being Served? which was also written by David Croft. Michelle also appeared as Betty, a Cockney barmaid, in three episodes of The Kenny Everett Television Show. In 1985, Michelle toured in a production of Doctor in the House with Robin Askwith, Frazer Hines and Windsor Davies.
After 'Allo, 'Allo! ended in 1992, Michelle went straight into another main role in Noel's House Party as Noel Edmonds's man-eating neighbour. She would play this role until 1997, wherein she had a guest role in two episodes of Gayle's World playing a fictional version of herself as a leader of a group of leather-clad women bearing whips named the Killer Bimbos. In 1996, Michelle played Lucy Westenra in a production of Dracula alongside Leslie Grantham in the title role. After having a part in the comedy film The Colour of Funny in 1999, Michelle auditioned for the role of Deedee Dove, the wife of Ray Winstone in the film Sexy Beast (2000). Although unsuccessful, as the role went to Amanda Redman, Winstone would remember Michelle. In 2001, she played Miss Hannigan in a touring production of Annie; she would reprise the role in various tours of the production in 2005 and 2007.
Remembering her from when she auditioned for Sexy Beast, Ray Winstone cast Michelle as his wife in the somewhat controversial television film All in the Game in 2006. Also starring in the film were Idris Elba and Danny Dyer who played the part of Michelle and Winstone's son. In 2007 Michelle reprised the role of Yvette Carte-Blanche in The Return of 'Allo 'Allo! celebrating twenty-five years since the show was first broadcast. From 2007 to 2009, she played the recurring character Patricia Foster in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale.[5] Later in 2007, she appeared in a Children in Need special of Hotel Babylon and, the following year, appeared on the BBC cookery programme Celebrity MasterChef. From 2008 to 2009, Michelle toured with the 'Allo 'Allo! stage show. She played the role of Amanda Newman in the 2010 TV film Resentment.
In 2013, she played Deborah Whitton in the 2013 romantic comedy film The Callback Queen. In 2014, Michelle returned to the stage in the hit play Hello Norma Jeane at London's King's Head Theatre, where she took on the role of an Essex grandma who claims to be Marilyn Monroe.[6]
In 2014, Michelle was cast to play the role of Dr. Victoria Spencer in Spencer Hawken's 2016 film No Reasons.[7]
In 2020, Michelle made her first appearance in the sitcom radio and podcast series Barmy Dale. She plays the recurring role of Angie Edwards.[8]
In February 2023, it was announced that Michelle would be joining the BBC One soap opera EastEnders in spring 2023 for a short guest stint.[9] It was later announced that Michelle would be playing Jo Cotton, the secret wife of Tom "Rocky" Cotton (Brian Conley).[10] her first scenes aired on 29 March 2023.
Other ventures
Charity work
Michelle is actively involved in many charities and good causes. She was the longest-serving president of The Heritage Foundation and is the current president of the eastern region of the Lady Taverners. As well as being a member of the Grand Order Of Lady Ratlings, Michelle is also an ambassador for Keep Britain Tidy, the SSAFA, Wetnose Animal Aid, Homeless Worldwide and a patron of the Gordon Craig Theatre, Macmillan Cancer Support, Barnardo's, Age UK, Marie Curie Cancer Care, Sign2Sing, the Blackfish Academy, the Talent Time Stage School, the Haven House Children's Hospice, the Essex Women's Advisory Group, The Dream Factory and AA Dog Rescue.[11][12] She is also an Executive Committee Member of the Royal Variety Charity.[13] She has also presented the Soldering On Awards since 2016.[14]
In 1992, Michelle and two of her sisters set up a company called Trading Faces, of which Michelle is the company director,[16] which provides celebrity after-dinner speakers for corporate events. Amongst her list of clients are Charles Dance, Joan Collins, Joanna Lumley and Lord Sebastian Coe.[17] The company's website also state that they also provide "film & video production facilities, multi-camera event coverage, CV & biography writing services, promotional & training films, film & TV commercials, press coverage, scriptwriting and product endorsement".[16]
Michelle is married to Graham Fowler, a cinematographer, whom she married in 1974.[20] She and Fowler have one daughter, Louise, born in 1989 who is also an actress, known as Louise Michelle.
In September 2015, Michelle was a guest on Big Brother's Bit on the Side and feared she could have been blinded after being hit on the back of the head with a champagne glass thrown by Farrah Abraham during a fight between Abraham and Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace.[21] The show had to be taken off air early and the incident prompted a police investigation. Michelle was hospitalised and suffered from whiplash, concussion and balance issues.[22][23] It was later reported Michelle wanted to 'press charges' against Abraham,[24] although there is no mechanism for her to have done so in English law.
In 2016, Michelle said she suffers from tinnitus.[25]
'Allo 'Allo! is a British sitcom television series, created by David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd, starring Gorden Kaye, Carmen Silvera, Guy Siner and Richard Gibson. Originally broadcast on BBC1, the series focuses on the life of a French café owner in the town of Nouvion, during the German occupation of France in World War II, in which he deals with problems from a dishonest German officer, local French Resistance, the handling of a stolen painting and a pair of trapped British airmen, all while concealing from his wife the affairs he is having with his waitresses.
Maleficent is a fictional character who first appears in Walt Disney Productions' animated film, Sleeping Beauty (1959). Maleficent is the self-proclaimed "Mistress of All Evil" based on the evil fairy godmother character in Charles Perrault's fairy tale Sleeping Beauty, as well as the villainess who appears in the Brothers Grimm's retelling of the story, Little Briar Rose. Maleficent was originally animated by Marc Davis.
Rona Anderson was a Scottish stage, film, and television actress. She appeared in TV series and on the stage and films throughout the 1950s. She appeared in the films Scrooge and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and on TV in Dr Finlay's Casebook and Dixon of Dock Green.
Roger Michael Kelly, known by the stage name Sam Kelly, was an English actor who appeared in film, television, radio and theatre. He is best known for his roles as Captain Hans Geering in 'Allo 'Allo!, Warren in Porridge, Sam in On the Up, and Ted Liversidge in Barbara.
The Sleeping Beauty is a ballet in a prologue and three acts to music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, his Opus 66, completed in 1889. It is the second of his three ballets and, at 160 minutes, his second-longest work in any genre. The original scenario was by Ivan Vsevolozhsky after Perrault's La belle au bois dormant, or The Beauty Sleeping in the Forest; the first choreographer was Marius Petipa. The premiere took place at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on January 15, 1890, and from that year forward The Sleeping Beauty has remained one of the most famous ballets of all time.
Karen Dunbar is a Scottish comedian, actress and writer. She first appeared on television on the BBC Scotland sketch comedy series Chewin' the Fat (1999–2002) and was subsequently given her own show by the channel, The Karen Dunbar Show (2003–2006).
Sally Jane Lindsay is an English actress and television presenter. She rose to fame playing Shelley Unwin in the long-running ITV soap opera Coronation Street (2001–2006). Her other roles include Lisa Johnson in the Sky One comedy-drama Mount Pleasant (2011–2017), Alison Bailey in the ITV police procedural Scott & Bailey (2011–2016), and Kath Agnew in the BBC sitcom Still Open All Hours (2013–2019). Since 2021, she has starred as Jean White in Channel 5's The Madame Blanc Mysteries (2021–present), which she co-created and produces.
Bertha Amy Lewis was an English opera singer and actress primarily known for her work as principal contralto in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.
The pilot of the British television sitcom 'Allo 'Allo! was originally broadcast on 30 December 1982. It was repeated as the first of a series of eight episodes broadcast from 7 September to 26 October 1984.
The second series of the British sitcom 'Allo 'Allo! contains seven episodes, which first aired between 21 October and 26 December 1985.
The third series of the British sitcom 'Allo 'Allo! contains six episodes, which first aired between 5 December 1986 and 9 January 1987.
The fourth series of the British sitcom 'Allo 'Allo! contains six episodes, which first aired between 7 November and 12 December 1987.
The sixth series of the British Sitcom series 'Allo 'Allo! contains eight episodes which first aired between 2 September and 21 October 1989 and repeated between 11 May and 29 June 1992.
The fifth series of the British sitcom 'Allo 'Allo! contains twenty-six episodes, which first aired between 3 September 1988 and 25 February 1989.
The seventh series of the British sitcom series 'Allo 'Allo! contains ten episodes which first aired between 5 January and 9 March 1991 and repeated between 6 July and 7 September 1992.
Nicola Caroline Kelly is an English actress, who is best known for her role as Sylvia Garnsey in the long-running British sitcom Hi-de-Hi!.
The Wicked fairy is the antagonist of Sleeping Beauty. In some adaptations, she is known as Carabosse. The most notable adaptation of the character is Maleficent, a Disney villain who appeared in various Disney media, beginning with the 1959 Walt Disney film Sleeping Beauty.
The Return of 'Allo 'Allo! is a one-off special episode of the British sitcom 'Allo 'Allo!, which was broadcast on BBC Two on 28 April 2007. The special is mix of both a traditional episode, as well as a behind-the-scenes documentary featuring highlights from the sitcom and interviews with cast members, celebrity fans and production staff.
Lyndsie Holland was an English opera singer and actress known for her performances in the contralto roles of the Savoy Operas.
Dorothy Gill was a British opera singer and actress, best known for her performances in the contralto roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.
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