Jane Clifton (born 10 April 1949) is a British Gibraltar-born Australian actress, singer, writer and former radio and voice artist.

She is best known for her role in TV serial Prisoner as tough prison bookie Margo Gaffney.

As a singer, she has had stints with numerous bands including Scumbag, Toad, Stiletto, Double Decker Brothers and Jo Jo Zep and has recorded an album featuring Jenny Morris and Wendy Matthews, Mark Williams and Marc Hunter

Early life Clifton was born in Gibraltar to British Army parents. She lived most of her childhood in Germany and Malaysia. When her father left the army, the family emigrated from Cardiff, Wales to Perth, Australia, in 1961, before settling in Melbourne in 1965. She studied a Bachelor of Arts at Monash University, graduating in 1972. She became a naturalised citizen of Australia in 1992.

Career

Radio and voiceover Clifton started out her career on Melbourne community radio stations 3CR and 3RMT-FM in the 1970s. She then worked for commercial stations 3AK, Radio National and 774 ABC. Clifton has also done voice-over work for commercials and audio books.

Film, television and stage Clifton has acted extensively in film and the stage and in various television programs. Beginning in cult favorites Stork (1971) and Pure Shit (1975), her films include The Clinic and A Slice of Life. Her stage roles include The Pack of Women and Mum's the Word. She has also made a number of television appearances, starting in the mid 70s with the Crawford's series Division 4, Homicide and Bluey, Against the Wind, Skyways, Holiday Island, Sweet and Sour, Carson's Law and Shock Jock, but her best-known acting role is probably that of tough prison bookie Margo Gaffney in Prisoner. Clifton played the role for 107 episodes from 1980 until 1984 on an intermittent basis as the script allowed, having previously appeared in the minor role of Yvonne, from episode 9, and featured in the Prisoner in Concert special.

Clifton also performed with Betty Bobbitt and Colette Mann as part of a three-woman troupe, The Mini Busettes, in the 1980s in RSLs across Australia.

In September 2010, it was announced that Clifton would be joining the cast of Neighbours as Judge Willow. Her scenes aired in November of that year.

In 2015 she appeared in the television series The Doctor Blake Mysteries as Sister Josephine.

Music

Clifton is also a singer. In 1975 she was the lead singer in a pub rock band, Toads, alongside Martin Armiger on lead guitar and vocals, Andrew Bell on guitar, Eric Gradman on violin, Marney Sheehan on bass guitar and Eddie Van Roosendaal on drums and vocals. In the following year with Bell, Sheehan, van Roosendaal and Janie Conway on guitar and vocals, Clifton formed rock, pop group Stiletto. Conway and Sheehan were replaced by Chris Worrall on guitar and Celeste Howden on bass guitar, respectively. The group provided three tracks, "Nights in Parlour", "Cream" and "The Man", for a Various Artists' album, Debutantes (1977).

Stiletto issued a studio album, Licence to Rage on Oz Records/EMI in September 1978, which was produced by Peter Walker. It peaked at No. 93 on the Kent Music Report albums chart. n.b.: Used for Australian Singles and Albums charting from 1974 until Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) created their own charts in mid-1988. In 1992, Kent back calculated chart positions for 1970–1974. The album provided two singles, "Bluebirds" (March) and "Goodbye, Johnny" (August). Later that year the band supported a performance by Elvis Costello before breaking up early in 1979. While a member of Stiletto, Clifton co-wrote "Goodbye, Johnny" with Bell and Conway. The singer formed Jane Clifton Sextet, which provided cover versions of Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald songs. In late 1982 Clifton provided vocals for Jo Jo Zep's single, "Taxi Mary", which reached No. 11 on the singles chart. She also provided vocals on Zep's album, Cha (October 1982).

Clifton released a solo single, "Girl on the Wall" (February 1984), on Mushroom. It is her version of a song from The Pack of Women cabaret, stage show. Her backing band, the Go Go Boys, comprised Jo Jo Zep's associates from the Black Sorrows, Jeff Burstin on guitar, Wayne Burt on guitar, Wayne Duncan on bass guitar, Steve Williamson on saxophone and Gary Young on drums. According to Debbie Muir of The Canberra Times, "her vocals are smooth and soft" and the song is "good and catchy". It peaked at No. 13. She issued two more singles, "My Machines" (June 1984) and "Turn to Dust" (May 1985).

Clifton provided vocals for tracks on the soundtrack album for TV series, Dancing Daze (February 1986), including "Second Home", which was released as the B-side of the single, "Might Have Been" by Jenny Morris, Wendy Matthews and Mark Williams. That album was produced by former bandmate, Armiger. For her track she was backed by the Green Sisters Band: Armiger and Bell both on guitars, Chris Abrahams on piano, Jeremy Alsop on bass guitar, Tony Buchanan on alto saxophone, Ricky Fataar on drums, Clive Harrison on bass guitar, Jason Morphett on tenor saxophone, Glen Muirhead on keyboards and Lloyd Swanton on bass guitar.

Author Clifton is the author of the novels Half Past Dead (2002), A Hand in the Bush (2005)Writers on the Road – State Library of Victoria and Flush (2013). In 2011, she published her memoir The Address Book and in 2019 she wrote a book of poetry A Day at a Time – in Rhyme.

Discography

Studio albums Title Album details The Marriage of Style Released: 2003 Format: CD Label: Sound Vault Records

Soundtracks Title Album details Dancing Daze(by Jenny Morris, Wendy Matthews, Mark Williams, Marc Hunter & Jane Clifton)Released: February 1986 Formats: LP, Cassette Label: ABC Music (RML 53191)

Singles + List of singles, with selected chart positions Year Title Peak chartpositions Album AUS 1982 "Taxi Mary" 11 Cha 1984 "Girl on the Wall" 13 "My Machines" – 1985 "Turn to Dust" –rowspan="3"

Awards and nominations Countdown Australian Music Awards Countdown was an Australian pop music TV series on national broadcaster ABC-TV from 1974 to 1987, it presented music awards from 1979 to 1987, initially in conjunction with magazine TV Week. The TV Week / Countdown Awards were a combination of popular-voted and peer-voted awards.

| 1984 | herself – "Girl on a Wall" | Best Female Performance in a Video

Filmography

Film YearTitleRoleType 1971 Stork Student (uncredited) Feature film 1975 Pure S (aka 'Pure Shit') Party Girl Feature film 1982 A Slice of Life Fay Feature film 1982 The Clinic Sharon Feature film 1984 Anna Who? Herself Film short 1988 As Time Goes By Mechanic Feature film 1990 A Kink in the Picasso Bella Feature film 1992 Garbo Mayor Feature film 2010 Matching Jack Finn's Doctor Feature film 2014 Helen Garner's Monkey Grip Herself Film short 2017 Beast Bea Film short 2017 Lost Gully Road Mother Feature film

Television YearTitleRoleType 1971; 1973 Division 4 Anne Mason / Hippy Girl TV series, 2 episodes 1973 Ryan Jenny TV series, 1 episode: "A Little Something Special" 1975–76 Homicide Cheryl / Jenny Walker / Janice Thelgood TV series, 3 episodes 1977 Bluey Seaboots TV series, 1 episode: "Father and Son" 1978 Against the Wind Convict Woman TV miniseries, 2 episodes 1978; 1982; 1984 Countdown Performer / Co-host TV series, 3 episodes 1978 Rockturnal Performer (with band 'Stiletto' sings "Nuclear War") TV series, 1 episode 1979 Skyways Shelley TV series, 1 episode: "The Flying Sleuths" 1979–1984 Prisoner Margo Gaffney / Yvonne TV series, 107 episodes 1980 Working Up Herself Film documentary 1981 Holiday Island Fran TV series, episode: 'A Mother's Revenge' 1981 Prisoner in Concert Herself TV special 1981 Home Kearns TV series, 2 episodes 1982–1988 Hey Hey It's Saturday Singer TV series, 9 episodes 1983 For Love or Money Herself Film documentary 1984 Sweet and Sour TV series, 1 episode 1984 Carson's Law Mrs. Watkins TV series, 1 episode 1984; 1985 The Mike Walsh Show Performer TV series, 2 episodes 1984 Special Squad Karen TV series, episode 31: "Brothers" 1986 Dancing Daze Lee Harper TV miniseries 1985 A Single Life Lee TV movie 1987–1988 Five Times Dizzy Mrs. Wilson TV series, 12 episodes 1989 The Power, The Passion Carla Graham TV series, regular role 1990 The Flying Doctors Greta TV series, 1 episode: "The Last Carnival" 1991 Col'n Carpenter Emily Sutcliffe TV series, 1 episode 1993–2005 Good Morning Australia Regular singer TV series 1995 Janus Phillipa Strong TV series, 1 episode: "A Lawful Apprehension" 1998 In Melbourne Tonight Singer TV series, 1 episode 2001 Round the Twist Producer TV series, 1 episode: "TV or Not TV" 2001 Shock Jock Joy Gold TV series, 1 episode: "Cops and Dobber" 2010; 2019 Neighbours Judge Nerida Willow / Meg Fletcher TV series, 5 episodes 2014 Winners & Losers Lynette Vanderthorpe TV series, 1 episode: "The New Me" 2015 The Doctor Blake Mysteries Sister Josephine TV series, 1 episode: "This Time and this Place" 2016 Bringing Our Stories Home Miss Mulholland TV series, 1 episode: "Doing Our Bit" 2017 Classic Countdown Narrator TV series, 1 episode: "1978" 2024 Fisk Jean TV series, 1 episode 2024 Countdown 50 Years On Herself TV special2026StealShop CashierTV series 1 episode (1.2) 'Face Value"

Stage

As performer