Clare Buckfield
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| Clare Buckfield | |
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| Born | April 10, 1976  North London, England |
Clare Buckfield (born 10 April 1976) in North London, is an English actress, best known for playing the role of Jenny Porter in the BBC sitcom 2point4 children for much of the nineties and Natasha Stevens in the CBBC series "Grange Hill".
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[edit] Biography
From an early age both her 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 Georgina Cates as character Jenny Porter in 2point4, but this time Clare got the part over Julie. Clare appeared in the series up until the year 2000, when the premature death of actor Gary Olsen ensured this special millennium episode would be the last.
In 2004, Buckfield landed the role of Firefighter Katy Bell in Steel River Blues, a programme intended to fill the void left by London's Burning on ITV1. Unfortunately the series was not re-commissioned beyond its initial seven episode run.
Buckfield has also appeared in episodes of Dangerfield, Doctors & Holby City. She was the voice-over of Samantha in the PG Tips television commercials and appeared in the Big Finish Doctor Who 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 The Horror of Glam Rock and then again in 2007 (released in 2008) in Dead London.
[edit] Dancing on Ice
Buckfield gained second place in the second series of the hit ITV show Dancing on Ice. Her partner was the Russian skating star Andrei Lipanov, whom she regarded as a 'gentle giant'. 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 Clare excelled and got the joint highest result of the series at 29.5. Going into the final Clare was the second favourite to win with odds of 4:1. The final took place on Saturday, 17th March 2007 and saw the three remaining stars battle it out for the trophy in the skate off she and Kyran Bracken were both battling out to win but she only came second. A week later champions of champions was on and she once again faced Kyran Bracken in the final skate off but again came second.
After her very first flawless performance in a dazzling red outfit to Dusty Springfield , Buckfield was classed as a cut above the rest of the line-up, sparking rumours that she has skated before. Buckfield denied those rumours, and said like all the others this was her first time on the ice. During the series, she experienced several injuries, the most serious being a pulled muscle underneath her ribcage. This restricted her a little in the lifts that she was able to perform. Despite her natural aptitude for the ice Clare was polled in the final two twice during the series but was saved from eviction from the judges.
She will be appearing in the Dancing On Ice Live Tour which will see past celebrities from the two series battle it out again on the ice. The tour will be presented by Andi Peters, himself a former celebrity contestant.
[edit] Personal life
In 2003, she broke up with her long term boyfriend Declan Donnelly, of TV duo Ant & Dec. It is said the split was due to the thriving career of Dec, who frequently spent long spells in Australia whilst filming the two series of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. They still remain good friends, and Clare was quoted to have said that she will 'never say never' about Dec. Dec recently went to see her perform and supported her in ITV's Dancing On Ice. She confessed to the Daily Mirror that she has had a couple of relationships with non-celebrities since splitting with Dec, but they did not work out.
Clare has always been extremely close to her sister, and she describes her as more of a best friend than a sister. Although they are identical, they have become increasingly easy to distinguish due to the different hair styles they assume for different roles.
