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Hosted by Noel Edmonds, Noel’s house Party was a hugely popular and successful light entertainment series, broadcast live on primetime Saturday evening television  on BBC 1 throughout the 90’s.

The basic theme of the programme centred around Noel’s manor house in the fictitious  village of Crinkly Bottom where he played host to numerous, prestigious, celebrity guests, village locals and features such as the famous Gotchas, Grab a Grand, NTV and the Gunge Tank

Vicki made her first appearance on the show in 1992 and later became a regular in 1995 when she assumed the role of Noels’ man-eating neighbour. This initiated a change in storyline as all previous female neighbours had made it quite clear that despite Noel’s attempts to flatter and woo, the ladies were completely impervious to all his manly charms. Vicki’s arrival to Crinkly Bottom however sparked a role reversal with Noel seemingly out of his depth and fighting off his new neighbour’s amorous advances at every attempt.

Aside form this running gag, Vicki also found herself involved with Noel’s Gotcha feature on a couple of occasions. The first came while starring in the comedy play Don’t Dress For Dinner during a summer season at Bournemouth’s Pier Theatre where she collaborated with Noel and fellow cast members, to set up leading man Lionel Blair. General mayhem ensued and tempers became frayed as Vicki deliberately made late entrances and pretended to appear confused, a disguised Noel heckled from the audience and sound and light cues popped up randomly and without warning in an attempt to throw Lionel in his performance, all of which resulted in the famous Blair Stare before Noel finally appeared on stage to present the award. The tables were turned in a later series as a result of Vicki stating ‘You’ll never get me’, when she was asked to visit a restaurant as herself and also in disguise to determine if celebrities received better treatment than the general public. The course of events led her to supposed arrest, where, following her transportation to the local police station under escort, she failed to recognise her arresting officer as an actor from The Bill before finally being presented with her Gotcha by Noel also in disguise as a policeman. The feature was taken a stage further when during the showing of the Gotcha days later, Mr Blobby tipped an entire tureen of real chicken tikka massala all over Vicki. Not to be outdone, Noel received his comeuppance a week later when he was well and truly set up and gunged by the vengeful Vicki.

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Gayle Tuesday was the comic creation of writer, presenter and comedienne Brenda Gilhooly who could undoubtedly be heralded in the same vein as Catherine Tate and Ronni Anconna. The character Gayle Tuesday was first awarded her own show with a series to follow in the late 90’s which she co wrote with Nichola Hegarty. Although the original format of the programme followed that of a magazine chat show, the series incorporated a number of sketch items and musical interludes. Enter Vicki. Together with a group of leather clad beauties and bearing whips, the females lead by Vicki and played by Daniella Westbrook, Sara Cox and Kathy Lloyd devise a plot to overthrow and control the world establishing total female domination of rule. The mini serialization ran over several episodes before finally being thwarted by heroine Gayle. “Working on the show was a real joy,” Vicki says. “The girls are such talented writers and Brenda is great to perform with.”

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The Two Ronnies is unquestionably one of the most successful British comedy programmes of all time with Messrs Barker and Corbett combining to form a unique partnership that rated at the very top of their craft for over 25 years.

The show which comprised of a series of comedy sketches interspersed with musical interludes from such eminent performers as Barbara Dickson and Elaine Paige, first took to the air in 1971. Many well known actors including Vicki and her sister Ann Michelle made regular appearances in not only the short sketches but the immensely popular and elaborately filmed serialised adventures which ran throughout each series.

For Vicki this included one such mini serialisation written by the legendary Spike Milligan, entitled The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town. Set in the Victorian period, the storyline was very loosely based on the Jack the Ripper murders with Jack being replaced by a Phantom who terrorises his victims to death by blowing raspberries. This highly unlikely scenario gave rise to two contrasting roles for Vicki, first, rather bizarrely, a cockney paperboy complete with low cut shirt and moustache and secondly in a more familiar guise as a somewhat busty and frolicsome wench.

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Come Back Mrs Noah hit our TV screens in 1978. Written by David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd, it was considered by many to be ahead of  its  time  and  perhaps  as  a result, was the reason that this particular Croft, Lloyd collaboration proved less popular

than some of its rivals. It did however, serve as the catalyst that helped launch Vicki to stardom as it was as a direct result of her performance as a French robot maid in the episode The Housing Problem, that ultimately led to her being offered the role of Yvette in Allo Allo.

Set in the future, housewife Mrs Noah wins a cookery competition the prize of which is to tour the new British space exploration vehicle. A series of unfortunate mishaps lead to the spacecraft being launched into outer space posing the problem of how to get everyone home. This was Vicki’s first appearance in a Croft Lloyd show and also starred her sister Ann Michelle in the leading role of Scarth Dare. Other cast members included a number of familiar faces from previous joint ventures by this writing team including Mollie Sugden, Ian Lavender, Donald Hewlett, Michael Knowles and Gorden Kaye.

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During a break form recording Allo Allo, Vicki was invited to join the cast list on another of David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd’s long running hit comedy series Are You Being Served. Set in the exclusive fictitious department store of Grace Brothers, this highly successful show ran for ten seasons and depicted the often outrageous exploits of the store’s colourful and flamboyant employees from Menswear and Ladies Apparel giving rise to a host of star names in the process. Among the regular cast members were Wendy Richard, Frank Thornton, Trevor Bannister, Mollie Sugden, Arthur English, Nicholas Smith and the incomparable, late, lamented John Inman whose portrayal of the camp Mr Humphries is heralded as one of the finest and best loved characters the world over.

Vicki’s first appearance in the series came in 1983 as the voice of the CB radio in the episode Calling All Customers. With business in the store on the decline, the staff of Grace Brothers decide to drum up custom by way of a broadcast over CB radio. When Mr Spooner (Mike Berry), makes contact with a seductive young lady, (played by Vicki), he thinks his luck has changed until he realizes she is actually a police constable on the look out for possible curb crawlers.

Vicki made a brief return to the show in the episode The Nightclub a year later. When Mr Humphries acts as a temporary usherette in a nearby cinema, his colleagues decide to pay a visit by way of support for the main feature in which Vicki portrayed the role of the on screen actress.

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Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads was first broadcast in 1973 and was the hugely successful follow up to the equally successful Likely Lads. The storyline picks up some six years after the end of the first classic series with Rodney Bewes and James Bolam recreating their original roles as friends Bob and Terry.

The sequel finds Bob  firmly established as the dutiful husband with Terry returning fresh from his exploits in the army and as ever reluctant to conform to the constraints of normal society. Vicki joined cast regulars for the episode The Ant and the Grasshopper. Hardworking Bob is striving to provide a better future for himself and wife Thelma played by Bridget Forsyth, while simultaneously acting as financial benefactor to his less than conscientious friend Terry who is funding his playboy lifestyle as a result of Bob’s generosity. When Bob, Thelma and their friends meet Terry in an expensive nightclub, questions are inevitably asked not least as Terry is sparing no expense on his latest girlfriend, local cinema usherette Madelyn played by Vicki. It’s fair to say her stunning looks and winning personality cause a major distraction among the men and something of an irritation with their wives. It’s a role that gives us a rare chance to see Vicki as a Geordie.

Vicki also made a guest appearance in the film version of The Likely Lads as Glenys, a young hitchhiker. In this adaptation Bob and Terry are returning from a disastrous camping trip with their respective partners asleep in the caravan they are towing when they encounter Glenys and her friend hitching along the roadside. With temptation too much to handle, they offer the girls a lift with even more devastating results. For Vicki, this film was not entirely the happy event it should have been as she found herself having to battle with food poisoning during shooting!

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Vicki’s involvement with Children in Need began in the early 1980’s when the charity’s show first became a telethon programme which rapidly evolved into its current form. Early appearances on the BBC1 show included sketches with the Allo Allo cast and she also presented one BBC Midlands regional programme linking to the main event alongside Alan Titchmarsh. In 1999 Vicki travelled to Bournemouth to take part in their televised Children in Need Snooker Special. The programme was beamed live via the Southampton studio. Hosted by Jim Davidson, ably supported by John Virgo, Vicki competed alongside Frank Carson, Frank Bruno, Jimmy White and John Parrot. At one stage she was asked to perform a trick shot during which time it was suggested she might need one of the men to show her how it was done but she proved everyone wrong by being the only member of the team to perform the trick perfectly on two consecutive attempts.

Other events for the charity over the years have seen Vicki host fashion shows, make personal appearances and judge events all over the country. 

During the late summer of 2007, Vicki recorded a sketch for the most recent Children in Need Appeal in the heart of London’s Mayfair. In a truly ingeniously inspired storyline concept, she played the role of a French bar manager in a spoof take of the popular television series Hotel Babylon. With the hotel ostensibly under new ownership, sweeping changes are made to the staff when the original team are sacked to make way for a completely fresh regime. Enter Prunella Scales as manager reprising her former characterisation as the formidable Sybil Fawlty. Also taking part were Lesley Joseph as the man eating receptionist, June Whitfield as a delightfully scatty housekeeper, Frank Thornton as a somewhat po-faced waiter and Paul Shane as the accident prone

Following the recording, Vicki and the rest of the cast were on hand in the studio with Terry Wogan on Children in Need night to help boost pledges.

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There is no doubt that The Generation Game was one of the UK’s best loved game shows of all time so it was probably no surprise when UKTV Gold announced a major commission to bring the show back with a slightly new format. With the legendary Bruce Forsyth back at the helm, the new series of  five half hour programmes incorporated archive material from the original footage capturing some of Bruce’s favourite moments with newly filmed segments including hand picked celebrity guests by Bruce.

Vicki appeared on the series a number of times both with Bruce and Jim Davidson taking part in a variety of games as diverse as icing a cake and performing a ballet dance. The latest appearance saw Bruce ask Vicki to eat a doughnut without licking her lips. Anyone who has ever tried the challenge will know how difficult it can be but Bruce had obviously not reckoned with Vicki’s will power.

The programme was shown on Thursday 13^th Dec with the Best Of The Generation Game Now and Then shown the following week.

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Created by Brian Clemens, when The Professionals first took to the air, it was considered by many of its critics to be too violent with one episode having to be pulled completely. However, this did not stop the series reaching cult status with the approval of the National Viewers and Listeners Association together with millions of adoring fans. The programme still enjoys numerous reruns on satellite TV. The storyline is based on the exploits of CI5 criminal intelligence agents Bodie and Doyle, played by Lewis Collins and Martin Shaw together with their equally tough superior George Cowley, played by the late Gordon Jackson. Vicki was to make two guest appearances in the show, the first in the opening episode of series two entitled Hunter/ Hunted in which she played Jo, the somewhat tipsy blind date of Bodie. Her second came in series five in the episode The Untouchables. Here she was seen portraying the role of Tina, a beautiful and charming hostess and girlfriend of a notorious gambling hustler played by John Junkin.

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Categorized as a comedy drama, Minder was originally written as a vehicle for Dennis Waterman and follow up to the immensely popular crime series The Sweeney. Critically acclaimed, at its peak the show was one of ITV’s most popular programmes with viewing figures topping 17 million. The plot centres on ex boxer turned bodyguard Terry McCann played by Dennis Waterman. McCann has recently been released from prison and is employed as a personal minder by second-hand car salesman, con man, dodgy dealer and all round lovable rogue, Arthur Daly played by the incomparable George Cole. During its fifteen year run, the show played host to a number of up and coming young actors including Vicki. In the episode Don’t Tell Them Willie Boy Was Here she played the role of Sarah Jane, one of two young girls employed to keep champion boxer Willie Reynolds amused between fights following his return to the ring after a two year absence. McCann becomes involved when Daly offers to lend him out as Willie’s minder. This episode also starred Alfred Marks as Willie’s boxing promoter.

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Vicki made a brief excursion into the world of science fiction early in her career when she appeared in an episode of the cult Gerry and Sylvia Anderson series Space 1999.

 The programme was one of two creations in which the world renowned puppet masters of such animations as Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and Joe 90, crossed into the realms of using actual actors and was equally as successful. During the height of its popularity, the programme attracted a host of well known guest stars including Joan Collins, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in addition to cast regulars Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, Tony Anholt, Barry Morse and Catherine Schell. The storylines are based around Moonbase Alpha and its inhabitants who are catapulted into interstellar space as a result of an explosion in lunar nuclear waste dumps. Unable to return to Earth’s orbit and with all communications severed, the crew are forced to drift through space looking for a new home.

It is hardly surprising that as a result, the ensuing scripts were much acclaimed for their special effects and futuristic costume designs. Vicki was cast in the episode entitled The Taybor. Here she plays the role of a space technician who becomes entangled in the dealings of a larger than life alien trader, as he battles his wits against the crew of Moonbase Alpha in a bid to strike a bargain for the shape shifter Maya whom he ultimately abducts.

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