Lisa Maxwell

Born in November 1963 to working-class parents, Lisa Maxwell was raised on an East London housing estate, and as a child was encouraged by her mother to pursue her obvious talent for entertaining, enrolling at the local drama school for weekend classes. Her first big break came in the early 1980s when she fought off 3000 contenders to become co-presenter of No Limits (1985), a pioneering youth programme which featured in the BBC's early evening schedule. In years to come, she built on this success with a stint as children's presenter on Thames TV's popular "Splash", and also acted as a foil to Russ Abbot and Les Dennis, both popular comedians of their day. By the early 1990s, Lisa had been rewarded with her own weekly entertainment series, The Lisa Maxwell Show (1991) and in 1993, she tried her luck as an actress in America, although her audition for the role of Daphne in Frasier (1993) proved unsuccessful, partly due to a misunderstanding. During her time in the US, however, she did