Early Life
McAlpine was born and bred in Bury, Greater Manchester. She is of Scottish and Irish descent, with a grandfather from County Kerry and a grandmother from County Sligo. As a young girl she used to put on shows on the patio for the neighbours, charging them 50 pence apiece. She did song and dance routines, copying groups like Bananarama.
Her father Tom McAlpine (b. 1951) works in mental health and was recently awarded the OBE for services to mental healthcare. With his encouragement she took up amateur dramatics at the age of eight, when father and daughter appeared together in a pantomime by the Bury Parish Players. She was the fairy and he was the dame. As a teenager she joined the Carol Godby Theatre Workshop. McAlpine's parents separated when she was young after which she lived with her father. She has a brother, Thomas McAlpine (b. 1971),
She had a difficult time at school and did not like teachers: 'My reports always said I talked too much and made me think I was crap. I wasn't in the popular group at school and I didn't especially get on with the girls ... All through school I was going for parts. They wouldn't give me time off for the auditions, so I used to end up wagging it.
Read more about this topic: Jennie Mc Alpine
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