Michelle Newell was born on June 18 1951. She made her television debut in 1972. Four years later she played the ill-fated Mary Seaton in When the Boat Comes In (1976) and in 1983 played Cleopatra, the queen of the Nile, in the BBC series The Cleopatras (1983). She was also the rape victim daughter in Dennis Potter's Brimstone and Treacle (1987), which, although filmed for television in 1976, was not screened until eleven years later. In addition to her stage work, she has written a novel 'Still Falls the Rain' and is married to visual effects designer and artist John Clive (b. London 1953) by whom she has a daughter Florence.