{{short description|British actress and writer|bot=PearBOT 5}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}} {{Use British English|date=July 2012}} {{Infobox person | image = jackie clune 2024 2.jpg | image_size = | caption = Clune performing in 2024 | birth_name = Jacqueline Clune | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1965|12|13|df=y}} | birth_place = Harlow, Essex, England | death_date = | death_place = | other_names = | occupation = Drama lecturer, singer, comedian, actress, television presenter | years_active = 1986–present | spouse = Richard Hannant (2008–present) | website = }}
'''Jacqueline Clune''' (born 13 December 1965)<ref name=WOS8821023628374>{{cite web |title=20 Questions with...Jackie Clune |url=http://www.whatsonstage.com/interviews/theatre/london/E8821023628374/20+Questions+With...Jackie+Clune.html |url-status=dead |publisher=Whats on Stage |date=10 June 2002 |access-date=2010-01-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110616111757/http://www.whatsonstage.com/interviews/theatre/london/E8821023628374/20+Questions+With...Jackie+Clune.html |archive-date=16 June 2011}}</ref> is a British actress and writer. She became established through her Edinburgh Fringe one-woman cabaret shows and her 1995 Karen Carpenter tribute act before graduating to mainstream acting.
==Early life== Jackie Clune is the third of four children born in Harlow, Essex,<ref name=AuthorTrek/> to Irish Roman Catholic parents: her father, Don Clune (died August 2010), worked for a computer firm, her mother, (died 2018) was a nurse.<ref name=Times581449>{{cite news |last=Wark |first=Penny |title=Love, etc |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article581449.ece |work=The Times |date=4 October 2005 |accessdate=25 June 2010}}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> The writer Maggie Clune is her sister.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}
Jackie Clune graduated with a degree in drama from the University of Kent.<ref name=WOS8821023628374/>
==Career== On graduation from university, she became a full-time drama lecturer at the Royal Holloway College for at least six years, was the presenter of the Weekend Breakfast Show on BBC GLR 94.9fm, and a BBC London radio journalist.<ref name=AuthorTrek>{{cite web|url=http://www.authortrek.com/jackie_clune_page.html|title=Jackie Clue|publisher=AuthorTrek.com|accessdate=2010-06-25|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514143026/http://www.authortrek.com/jackie_clune_page.html|archivedate=14 May 2011}}</ref> She started singing in bands part-time, but between sets as a DJ she developed a facility in chatting to the audience.<ref name=AuthorTrek/> This led a friend to suggest that she could create a Karen Carpenter tribute performance, with singing; this she worked on and took to the Edinburgh Festival in 1995, where she was spotted by a West End producer.<ref name=WOS8821023628374/>
Giving up her lecturing career, she co-founded the Red Rag Women's Theatre Company, and fell into stand-up comedy while working at the Hackney Empire.<ref name=AuthorTrek/> Her credits include the BBC soap drama ''EastEnders'' and ITV's ''The Bill''. Since hosting the Stonewall Society equality shows at the Royal Albert Hall,<ref name=WOS8821023628374/> she has developed a multi-media career. She has been on TV (terrestrial and Sky) and a radio panellist on ''Front Row'', ''QI'', ''Never Mind the Buzzcocks'', ''What the Dickens?'', ''Woman's Hour'' and ''The Staying-in Show'' and ''Loose Women''.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}
She had a part in ''Showstopper'' (1997), Bryony Lavery's play ''A Wedding Story'' (1999) and portrayed Julie Burchill, at the time a columnist for ''The Guardian'', in the one-woman play ''Julie Burchill Is Away'' by Tim Fountain at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and in the West End (2003) which launched her to the global press. In 2006–7, she played the lead female role of Donna in the Abba songs-based musical ''Mamma Mia!'' international tour until 17 March 2007.<ref>[http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=150942006 Jackie is set to Abba great time on stage] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311014144/http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=150942006 |date=11 March 2007}}, ''Edinburgh Evening News'', 30 January 2006.</ref> On 4 June 2007, she took over the role of the dance teacher Mrs. Wilkinson in ''Billy Elliot the Musical'' in London. She gave her final performance on 22 November 2008 prior to rejoining the ''Mamma Mia!'' International Tour (2009–2011) again as leading role Donna, the role interpreted by Meryl Streep in the film.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}
She sang the theme tune of, and contributed material to, the TV comedy ''Smack the Pony''.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}} After becoming involved in the revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black musical ''Tell Me On A Sunday'', she met Denise van Outen with whom she co-wrote the show ''Blondes'', which van Outen performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2009 and in six preview performances at the New End Theatre in Hampstead.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}
She promoted the album ''Love Songs'' (Dress Circle) courtesy of a show at the Soho Theatre in London's West End from 15 to 17 July 2010 and has also been involved in several musical projects including the 2010 memorial concert for the late Kirsty MacColl, singing with Billy Bragg.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}
Clune has also published two books, ''Man of the Month Club'' and ''Extreme Motherhood'', diaries relating how her lifestyle changed when she found herself pregnant with triplets little more than a year after having her first child.<ref>[http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=177072&Sn=BNEW&IssueID=30019 Experiences of a triplets' mum], ''Gulf Daily News'', 8 April 2007.</ref> She is also a freelance journalist. She contributed a column to the monthly magazine ''Top Santé'' magazine in 2013–14. Further books were released in July 2020 and June 2021.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}
She performed in 2011 as the outspoken Miss Ogle in the play ''The Belle's Stratagem'', directed by Jessica Swale and a revival of a script by Hannah Cowley from the Georgian period, at the Southwark Playhouse. She has been a warm-up act for the ''Singalonga Sound of Music'' and the ''Puppetry of the Penis'' shows.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}
In 2012, she toured nationally in the leading role of Amanda, the troubled teacher, in the cast of a play about bullying and racism issues for teachers, ''Mogadishu'' (14+) which received a nomination for the Olivier Awards 2012.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}
From October 2012 until 24 August 2013, Clune played the role of Violet in the ATG national tour of ''9 to 5: The Musical'', launched at the Manchester Opera House.<ref>{{cite web|title=Cast: Bonnie Langford clocks in for ''9 to 5: The Musical''|url=http://www.whatsonstage.com/news/theatre/london/E8831340967966/Cast:+Bonnie+Langford+clocks+in+for+9+to+5:+the+Musical.html|work=Whatsonstage|publisher=(Whatsonstage)|accessdate=29 June 2012|date=29 June 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120701112339/http://www.whatsonstage.com/news/theatre/london/E8831340967966/Cast%3A+Bonnie+Langford+clocks+in+for+9+to+5%3A+the+Musical.html|archive-date=1 July 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>
In 2013–14, she had a role in the musical/operetta ''Candide''.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}
Clune played Glendower and Westmorland in Phyllida Lloyd's new all-female stage production (world premiere) starring Dame Harriet Walter at the Donmar Warehouse of Henry IV (Parts I and II combined, in October–November 2014) which went to St Ann's Warehouse in NY (USA) until 13 December 2015.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}
Clune played Maggie Tan in ''The Vote'' (Donmar Warehouse/More 4) in summer 2015, and then had a leading role at the Salisbury Playhouse in Noël Coward's ''Fallen Angels'', a musical period drama, before joining the ensemble in the female-only ''Henry IV'' as above.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}} She has been in the cast of the Kings Cross Shakespeare trilogy (Tonic Awards 2017). She has also had a role in the film ''Denial'' (director Mick Johnson), 2016 and the acclaimed BBC TV drama ''Three girls'' (cast as Jillian Menzies) which won a Royal Television Society award in 2018.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}
In 2016-17, Clune co-starred in ''Borderline'' as boss Linda Proctor on Channel 5.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}
Clune appeared in three BBC television series, ''Motherland (BAFTA 2022),'' ''Ghosts'' and ''Mandy''.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}
She is part of the performance arts creative writing team for ''Queers''.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}
She was in the cast of the American play ''Utility'' at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, London.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}
She was cast in the role of Pompey in ''Measure for Measure'' for the autumn billing at the Donmar.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}
She appeared in the cast of the Olivier Award-thrice-winning ''Emilia'' (a play about Emilia Bassano) in the West End (2019),<ref>[https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/show/emilia Emilia on the Vaudeville Theater website]</ref> in ''The Vote'', and in ''9 to 5'' again in 2020.
She has had billing as the Narrator for The Rocky Horror Show, and a character part in Just for One Day.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}} in 2025, she features in the cast of a new BBC TV series, based on an Agatha Christie novel, "Towards Zero".
==Personal life== Clune was heterosexual, but at age 22 began dating women exclusively. Several of her relationships were long-term. After her last female relationship, she rejected an either/or choice and came out bisexual.<ref name=fallowfield>{{cite news|last=Fallowfield|first=Mel|title=I was a lesbian for more than a decade — then I had surprise triplets with my husband|work=The Telegraph|date=7 November 2025|accessdate=13 December 2025|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/parenting/i-was-a-lesbian-then-i-had-triplets/}}</ref> In 2001, Clune met ''Heartbeat'' actor and stunt performer Richard Hannant, who was the fire officer at the Arts Theatre where she was performing,<ref name=Times581449/> and started a relationship with him. Eleven months later she became pregnant with their first child, a daughter, Saoirse. The couple went on to have triplets (2005), and married in 2008.<ref>{{cite news |last=Clune |first=Jackie |title=My crime against the lesbian state |url=https://www.theguardian.com/weekend/story/0,,975770,00.html |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |date=14 June 2003 |accessdate=6 August 2012}}</ref>
For some years after her marriage, Clune referred to herself as a "hasbian" (former lesbian), but as of 2025 described herself as queer.<ref name=fallowfield />
Clune has been on the general council of the Equity Committee since 2013 and in August 2020 was elected vice president.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb name|0167334|Jackie Clune}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20201203175030/https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2bbed008d7 Jackie Clune] at the British Film Institute
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Clune, Jackie}} Category:1965 births Category:Living people Category:Actresses from Harlow Category:English people of Irish descent Category:Alumni of the University of Kent Category:Academics of Royal Holloway, University of London Category:English women singers Category:British women comedians Category:English stage actresses Category:English musical theatre actresses Category:English television actresses Category:Musicians from Kent Category:Actresses from Kent Category:20th-century English comedians Category:21st-century English comedians Category:Comedians from Essex Category:Comedians from Kent