I'm so proud of Martine and I long to see her ... maybe I'd get to

WHEN Martine McCutcheon landed her dream role of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, no one could have been prouder than her gran, Lilian Ponting.

Lilian still lives round the corner from Martine's childhood East End home, where she has fond memories of listening to her singing along to the My Fair Lady soundtrack.

"It is a fairy tale come true for Martine," says Lilian, 70. "As a kid she used to dance along to all the My Fair Lady songs. She was just made for the part. Eliza is a working class girl who won't let life get her down, pretty much like Martine."

Sadly, Lilian hasn't seen or spoken to Martine for six years after falling out with her daughter Jenny, Martine's mother.

A devout Catholic, Lilian disapproves of Jenny's decision to divorce husband John McCutcheon and marry council worker Alan Tomlin, 10 years her junior.

"I might sound like a fuddy-duddy but I can't help it," says Lilian, who was married to husband Ronald for 43 years. "Chopping and changing and getting divorced is wrong in my book."

An old-fashioned Cockney, she worries that Martine, who was once a curvy size 14, has become too thin.

Lilian says: "I switched on the television a few months ago and saw Martine. I couldn't believe my eyes - she had lost so much weight and looked far too skinny.

"It's not the natural Ponting women's shape. We love our food and we're naturally curvy.

"I really worry how she has managed to get that figure, and whether it's healthy for her."

Fears for Martine's health were fuelled last week when she was admitted to hospital with a viral complaint after dazzling theatre critics at My Fair Lady's press night. Her understudy was forced to step in to her role.

But Lilian believes that the determination that propelled her granddaughter to the top of her profession will carry her through.

"Knowing Martine, she will be desperate to get back out there," she says. "She won't want to be missing the action when she has waited so long to play this part."

Lilian still hopes for a reunion with Martine - partly, she jokes, because she hopes Martine might be able to arrange for her to meet Cliff Richard, her other singing hero.

"I always had Cliff albums around so Martine would have heard him a lot. I can't remember if she liked him but I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't have an influence on her."

And rather than dwelling on family tensions, she prefers to remember the moment a beaming Martine revealed she had won a role in EastEnders.

"I was over the moon," says Lilian. "It's the only one of the soaps I like and I never missed an episode. She was fantastic."

Shortly afterwards, Martine called round to see her granny on what was to be the last time the pair met, bringing with her a bunch of flowers and cries of "I love you Nan".

Lilian just wishes that Martine,24, could find a steady boyfriend, saying: "Martine is like Tiffany Mitchell in that respect...she hasn't been very good at picking men."

Earlier this tear, Martine finally dumped lover Jonathan Barnham, who publicly cheated on her. Previously she was linked to Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall.

When Tiffany's character was written out on New Year's Eve 1998, mowed down outside the Queen Vic, the episode attracted one of EastEnders' biggest audiences.

"Her own background growing up around here definitely helped her with the part," says Lilian.

"I always hoped she might end up as a performer.

"Despite all the hardships, she was always a lovely bubbly little girl who was always smiling. She loved singing and dancing and was always wanting to show off. Whenever her mum wasn't looking, little Martine would be trying on her dresses and tottering about in mum's high heels pretending to be on stage.

"She loved anything glittery and spangly and always wanted to be trying on lipstick and make-up.

"She got away with it because she was so pretty and sweet. She has this way of winning your heart without even trying.

"But I don't know where she gets that voice from," she laughs. "The rest of the family can barely hold a tune!"

It was that voice which clinched her a number one hit with her first single, Perfect Moment in 1999 and Lilian admits much of the credit must go to Jenny.

Desperate for a chance for her daughter to shine, Jenny took dead- end cleaning jobs to fund dancing lessons for Martine, who went to work with her if there was no one at home to babysit.

Lilian says: "The two of them have always been very close and I would love to be part of it again.

"It's Mother's Day this weekend. It would make my day to get a card or a call from either of them.

"But even if they don't call, no one can take it away from me that there's a Hackney girl up there with her name in lights and it's my little grand-daughter."

Copyright 2001 MGN LTD
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.