Margaret Mary Bernadette Clarke was born on the 25th of May 1954 in Sandhills, Liverpool down by the docks on the top landing of a tenement block called The Billogs. There her mother had six other children before the family moved and she was raised in Kirkby, Liverpool with writer director brother Frank, writer and actress sister Angela and seven other children.
Her career as a presenter began in 1978 on the late-night television magazine show 'What's On', broadcast only in the Granada region and hosted by the legendary Tony Wilson. She was known as Margox in the early 1980s and looked set to follow a career in music as she was the lead singer of various punk bands in her home city. She managed to get a band together with Andrew Schofield and his brother Glen, who was the drummer, and she once supported 'Adam And The Ants'. However it was her work in TV and film that was to eventually bring her to mainstream attention. After starting out as a presenter for Granada, she moved into acting with a role in the Channel 4 soap 'Brookside' (1983), where she appeared as Fran in two early episodes, credited as Margi MacGregor. This was before she found wider recognition with a role in the British film 'Letter To Brezhnev' (1985), the screenplay being adapted by her brother from his own play, which went on to become a surprise international hit. Margi had written a song called 'A Letter To Brezhnev' and this inspired him to write his script. It concerns two working-class Liverpool young women who meet two Russian sailors; the other lead part being played by Alexandra Pigg. The film was made for around £50,000 (Frank Clarke called this "the cocaine budget on Rambo"). At the next Evening Standard British Film Awards, Margi was awarded the prize for 'Most Promising Newcomer'. She had originated her role of Theresa in 'Letter to Brezhnev' a few years earlier when she played the role in a modest run at the Liverpool Playhouse in 1983.
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| The Premiere of 'Letter to Brezhnev' held in Kirkby. Frank Clarke (writer), centre, with his mother Frances and his sister Margi (Teresa). 4th October 1985 |
Margi appeared in the 'Pet Shop Boys' video for their 1987 single 'Rent' and then had a lead role in the films 'The Dressmaker' (1988) and 'Strike It Rich' (1990). She was cast as Queenie in the BBC series 'Making Out' (1989-91), a mixed comedy and drama portraying the factory floor women at New Lyne Electronics in Manchester; tackling their personal lives and issues of recession, redundancy and retrenchment as the factory goes through various crises and takeovers. In 1991 she performed with 'Half Man Half Biscuit' on the single "No Regrets" and the same year also portrayed Ronnie O'Dowd, a 'sexy' female boxer who follows her father into the world of 'pugilism' and rescues him from being 'on the skids' in New York to bring him back to Liverpool with her winnings in 'Blonde Fist'. Her last role before taking a three-year sabbatical, following the death of her mother and birth of her daughter, was in the BBC serial, 'Soul Survivors' (1995), co-starring Ian McShane. Upon her return, her TV acting credits included playing Tyrone Dobb's mum in the long running soap 'Coronation Street' (1998-2010). She initially appeared as Deidre Rachid's cellmate Jackie Dobbs, but later returned as a regular cast member. However she was dropped from the show due to personal issues, and departed in March 1999. After sorting herself out, Margi was asked to re-audition for the role in 2008 when producers intended to bring Jackie back to the show, and she was brought back on a two-month contract, with her scenes airing in August 2008 and then January 2009. She reprised the role for a final time from February to March 2010. Since then, she's notched up appearances in several films, including 'Revengers Tragedy' (2002), '24 Hour Party People' (2002), the biopic of the Factory/Hacienda days in Manchester where she played during her 'Margox' days of the 1970s, and 'The Boys From County Clare' (2003). There were also parts in 'Casualty' (2001), 'Family Affairs' (2001) and 'Benidorm' (2008). In 1991, she had returned to presenting, this time on the late night ITV show 'The Good Sex Guide' which gained audience figures of 13 million and for which she received a Royal Television Society (RTS) Award for 'Best Female Presenter' in 1994. She continued to present programmes and fronted her own daytime show, Swank (1994), and also guested on cult series 'The Word' and 'The Tube'.
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| In Ma Egerton's |
At the end of 2007 the Liverpool Echo reported that she would be playing the role of Kath in a revival of the Joe Orton play 'Entertaining Mr Sloane' as part of the city's Capital of Culture celebrations for 2008. In January 2008, she joined Liverpool's talk radio station City Talk 105.9, presenting a late night show on Saturday evenings. Then in February 2010, she appeared with her daughter Rowan in an episode of the BBC 'Celebrity Cash in the Attic' and then appeared in 'Scousers' in St Helens on the 26th of October 2010 with Tina Malone, Billy Butler and several others. In late 2010 she released her autobiography 'Margi Clarke – Now You See Me' and appeared in an episode of the BBC drama series 'Waterloo Road' in May 2011. In 2012 she revealed that as her acting roles had dried up she was working in Ma Egerton's pub near the Liverpool Empire as a barmaid and also hosting the pub's Quiz Night.
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2024/02/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians-ray.html
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