Creator / Melanie Hill

"That’s why I tell all the youngsters to keep doing it, keep plugging away. Stick in. You’ll be down one week and the next you could be in Hollywood."

Melanie Jane Hill, (11 January 1962), is a British actress best known for playing the second Aveline Boswell in Bread (1986). She was also married to Sean Bean from 1990 to 1997.

She attended RADA and won the Vanbrugh award. Following this she made her TV debut in two 1984 episodes of Juliet Bravo. Following this, she was cast in the second series of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet as Hazel Redfern, the fiancée of Barry. The two got married at the end of Series 2, but when AWP had a Revival in the 2000s, Hazel did not return, as according to Barry she had become a lesbian.

After the 1988 Bread Christmas Episode, Gilly Coman left the series and so someone was needed to fill the role of Aveline Boswell, someone who ended up being Hill, who stuck around for the final three series. Hill appeared in The Bill twice before playing Marie Graham (later Marie Carver) from 2003 to 2004.

Hill's career slowed down following this until she made an appearance in Stardust, following this she played Maggie Bugden in Waterloo Road from 2012 to 2015, then played Cathy Matthews in Coronation Street from 2015 to 2022. She was worried about playing the latter role, as the character was a love interest for Roy Cropper, whose deceased wife Hayley was beloved by the nation.

Recently, Hill joined the cast of CASUAL+Y, playing Siobhan McKenzie, the new Senior Sister/Clinical Nurse Manager at Holby City Hospital.

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Works on TV Tropes she appeared in:

Films

• Shopping (1994) — Sarah
• Brassed Off (1996) — Sandra Ormondroyd
• From Hell (2001) — Ann Crook's Mother
• Stardust (2007) — Ditchwater Sal

Series

• Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, 6 episodes^{show list}"The Return of the Seven: Part 1", "The Return of the Seven: Part 2", "No Sex Please, We're Brickies", "Law and Disorder", "For Better or Worse", "Quo Vadis, Pet" (1986) — Hazel Redfern
• The Bill, 24 episodes:
  • "The Mugging and the Gypsies" (1989) — Polly Beecher
  • "Living It Down" (1993) — Lynda Chambers
  • 22 episodes (2003-04) — Marie Carver
• ScreenPlay, episode "A Night on the Tyne" (1989) — Pauline
• Bread, 35 episodes (1989-91) — Aveline Boswell
• CASUAL+Y, 8 episodes:
  • "Wild Card" (1993) — Janice Hutchins
  • 7 episodes^{show list}"Haunted", "Easy Way Out", "Trauma", "Charlie", "System Failure", "Core Wounds", "Earn Your Stripes" (2024) — Siobhan McKenzie
• Silent Witness, 2-episode story "Gone Tomorrow" (1999) — Liz Davies
• Emmerdale, 2 episodes (2005) — Avril Kent
• Holby City, 2 episodes^{show list}"Coming Back to Bite You", "Breathe Deeply" (2009) — Kathy Hewitt
• The Thick of It, 1 episode (2009) — Julie Price
• Merlin, episode "Lamia" (2011) — Mary Howden
• Waterloo Road, 79 episodes (2012-15) — Maggie Bugden
• Coronation Street, 451 episodes (2015-22) — Cathy Matthews

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