Carmel McGlone

Hamilton-born Carmel McGlone fell into acting while studying music. Her theatre work includes many legendary women: Cleopatra, Marilyn Monroe, Aunt Daisy...plus ramshackle male Digger (in comical duo Digger and Nudger). In 1987 McGlone spent an “enormously enjoyable” six months on TV's Marching Girls, then ran around Wellington in a gorilla suit, playing a singing telegram worker in comedy Send a Gorilla. McGlone was nominated for acting awards for both — and for 90s cop show Plainclothes. She also acted in Emmy-nominated web series Reservoir Hill, and co-starred in getting older drama Hook, Line and Sinker.

It was very unusual for New Zealand television — somehow it slipped through. There were 10 women in the programme ... TVNZ were a bit scared of it. I think they thought it might leap out of the set and bite them. But it was just a nice lovely series. Carmel McGlone on TV series The Marching Girls, in a 18 January 1990 Evening Post interview