Line of Duty actress Vicky McClure has been reflecting on the meaning of life after receiving "heartbreaking" news while on holiday. McClure, 43, learned that a member of Our Dementia Choir, with whom she worked in 2018, had died.
Grief and gratitude
Speaking about the loss, McClure said: "That is a regular occurrence because that is the nature of dementia. It's the UK's biggest killer. Worldwide everybody's facing it and it's heartbreaking, but it does make me feel like I should grab life."
Dementia and Alzheimer's disease currently account for more than 10% to 12% of deaths nationwide, around 76,000 deaths annually. Dementia has been the top cause of death for women in the UK for over a decade, while for men, coronary heart disease often remains the single biggest killer, with dementia ranking closely behind.
McClure added: "I think we all have that sense – whenever somebody around you becomes ill or you know, you become ill yourself or you just realise just how fragile life is and just how grateful we should always try to be."
Embracing the present
The actress believes wholeheartedly in embracing the present moment: "You don't need to be a guru. You don't need to sit and bathe in a forest or do all these things to feel that you can do that wherever you are right now, wherever you live in the world. We can all just try and remind ourselves, I suppose, when you come somewhere like this it's like the humongous sense of gratitude."
McClure's career took off with Shane Meadows' series This is England, which she says gave her the space to portray a character rooted in her own identity. She maintains that, even in the 21st century, meaningful opportunities for working-class actors remain frustratingly scarce.
Working-class representation
Pointing to 2024 research revealing that 35% of BAFTA-nominated actors had attended private school - five times the proportion found in the wider population - she told the Independent: "Working-class actors are struggling for work because there isn't enough work. There's not enough stories that are being told about working-class people where you can hire working-class people."
Arguing that an over-representation of performers from privileged backgrounds ultimately lets down both audiences and actors alike, she said: "What I want is equality. It's about fairness of opportunity... the audience is suffering because they're missing out on the next Daniel Day-Lewis. The next Julie Walters."
McClure and her husband Jonny Owen, a former actor who featured in programmes including Shameless, Murphy's Law and My Family before transitioning into directing, spent part of this summer in Norway, soaking up the scenery of Isbreen in the country's north.
Luxury in simplicity
While there, savouring the tranquillity of a luxury igloo retreat where the Northern Lights are visible on up to 200 nights annually, she says she found time to contemplate what truly matters in her own life.
"Yes, it's luxury, but it's luxury in a completely different sense of the word," she told podcaster Jonny Cooper. "You know, the fact that you can eat your dinner in your joggers and that's exactly how you should be eating your dinner. You don't dress up at night. ...here, it's all about comfort. It's all about being yourself and feeling relaxed. And that to me is pure luxury."
McClure and Owen are appearing on Saturday Kitchen from 10am to 11.30am on BBC One.
