Clare Grogan

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Clare Grogan as Kristine Kochanski in Red Dwarf

Clare Grogan (born March 17, 1962, Glasgow) is a Scottish actress (credited when acting as C. P. Grogan) and singer.

1 Biography
- 1.1 Singing
- 1.2 Acting
2 Personal life
3 External links

[edit] Biography

Already in the band Altered Images, Grogan was discovered by director Bill Forsyth when she was waitressing in a Glasgow restaurant. She shot to fame at 19 as Susan, the girl who finally got her man in the hit film Gregory's Girl.

[edit] Singing

However, her first love was singing, and Grogan decided to develop her career in that direction as the lead singer of the band Altered Images, with a four piece including Johnny McElhone (later of Texas), and later five-piece with Stephen Lironi. The band had a string of hits in the 1980s including Happy Birthday, Don't Talk To Me About Love, I Could Be Happy and Bring Me Closer. Sadly the group split up after the mixed reception of their third album, Bite.

Grogan did attempt a solo career, but after her single Love Bomb flopped in 1987, her album, Trash Mad was unfortunately never released. In 2000 she contributed vocals to the song "Night Falls Like A Grand Piano" on the Magnetic Fields side project the 6ths album, Hyacinths and Thistles.

Altered Images reunited for a tour in 2005.

[edit] Acting

Obliged to appear as C.P. Grogan because there was already a Clare Grogan in British actors union Equity, in 1985 she was the receptionist in the BBC televised version of Blott on the Landscape. She had a recurring role playing Dave Lister's would-be love-interest, Kristine Kochanski, on the TV show Red Dwarf, although this was later taken up by Chloë Annett. She has also appeared in Father Ted, and more recently in EastEnders as Ian Beale's love interest.

In recent years, she has been a talk show host in the UK. She will play control-freak of an office manager Sandra Reeves in the forthcoming motion picture The Penalty King.

[edit] Personal life

An ex-girlfriend of Volaro founder David Blackwood, she married fellow band member Stephen Lironi in Glasgow in 1994. The couple live in the London Borough of Haringey, and in 2005 the couple adopted daughter Lucia.