It might still be a few weeks away, but if you’re anything like us, it just wouldn’t be Christmas without Martine McCutcheon. The actress and singer first broke onto our screens as the inimitable ‘Tiff’ on EastEnders in the late nineties, but truly cemented herself as part of our annual Christmas celebrations starring as the charming cockney housekeeper who wins posh prime minister Hugh Grant’s heart in Love Actually, which, astonishingly celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. This combination of screen roles coupled with stage success (she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical, in 2002, for her appearance as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady) meant she seemed set for huge stardom.
