Outside of music, McCutcheon continued to appear in television programmes, films and stage productions; her portrayal of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady won her a Laurence Olivier Award in 2002.

He eventually lost the case, was denied any access to Martine until she was 18 and told that he could not apply for it again due to his past behaviour.

[14] Shortly before her tenth birthday, she successfully auditioned for a place at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts.

[15] However, because of the changing policy of the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA), she was no longer eligible for the grant she was supposed to receive for coming second in the audition and, with no financial support, she was forced to withdraw.

[17] Later, the Reeves Foundation, a Church of England charity based in Moorgate, offered McCutcheon a grant and she was able to enrol at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts.

[20] She was given the part of Mandy in the television series Bluebirds (1989) alongside Barbara Windsor and played Susan, Jane's sister (played by Denise van Outen), in the Anthony Newley-directed production of Stop the World – I Want to Get Off, at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley, London, which was later transferred to the West End Lyric Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue.

By the time she was 15, she was part of an all-girl group, Milan, with two fellow pupils, and landed a record contract with Polydor and a gig touring as the warm-up act for the British boyband, East 17.

[23][20] In 1994, McCutcheon was offered the small part of Tiffany Raymond on the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders.

The role of Tiffany grew as did McCutcheon's popularity and 22 million viewers tuned in to see her final scenes in Albert Square in 1998 when her character was killed off in a special episode screened on New Year's Eve.

[24] In reality, McCutcheon had decided to leave the soap in order to embark on a pop career and the death of her character was not viewed favourably by the actress as she had intended to return.

[25] Since leaving the show, McCutcheon has publicly slammed the BBC's "Controller of Continuing Drama Series", Mal Young, who made the decision to kill her character.

[20] In turn, Young has hit back at McCutcheon, saying her anger only arose because she wanted him to keep her role in EastEnders open as a "safety net", in case her pop career failed, and he was not prepared to do this.

[29] McCutcheon returned to music in 2017 with her fourth studio album, Lost and Found, released in August by BMG.

Despite missing many performances (citing health problems) and withdrawing nearly five months early from the production's transfer to the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane,[33] she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical at the 2002 ceremony.

Screened on the UK television network ITV1 in December 2005, McCutcheon appeared in The English Harem, playing a woman in love with a Muslim man (Art Malik), who marries him, despite knowing he already has two wives.

In 2007, McCutcheon was seen in two independent films, Withdrawal and Jump!, as well as the Agatha Christie's Marple television series episode "At Bertram's Hotel".

In 2006, the supermarket chain Tesco announced that they would be using McCutcheon in a series of adverts to promote a new green scheme for recycling used plastic carrier bags.

[50] On social media, she shares her experiences with flare-ups of fibromyalgia and how this impacts her, such as slowing down her journey with weight loss.

[51] In 2013, she was declared bankrupt by the Kingston upon Thames County Court with creditors including HM Revenue and Customs.