British Legend Michelle Thorne

When she recently took part in ITV's primetime search for a popstar show X-Factor, much of the show's mainly female audience may not have recognised the face or wiggling curves of Michelle Thorne. But many of the guys sat at home on the sofa beside girlfriends and wives would have had the memories and juices come flooding back. For the best part of a decade, Michelle Thorne has been up there as one of the most famous faces of both British glamour and porn, appearing in everything from topless daily newspaper shoots to full-blown hardcore boy-girl xxx movies.

She has presented, produced, written and starred in a host of shows for adult channels like Playboy TV and Television X, and is often one of the first names documentary makers or journalists looking for quotes about the UK adult industry turn to.

Michelle was born in Bristol on 2 August 1975. Something of a tomboy and joker at school, she was expelled at 15. She set about her ambition to become a singer, got a classical training and indeed had not a little success, touring the cabaret clubs alongside acts such as Bobby Davro, Joe Pasquale, The Baron Knights and The Drifters. She was also a cheerleader for the UK american football team, the English Monarchs, singing the anthem before each game.

But it was while she was getting some publicity shots done that a photographer suggested she had the look for glamour. He sent some stills to a well-known agency and the rest is pretty much history. Regular modelling for mainstream ads progressed to topless shoots for lad's mags, and on eventually to full nude shoots and covers for the biggest men's mags in Europe. Michelle Thorne became a huge name in British glamour and when she finally started to do hardcore movies, the appetite to see them was pretty well insatiable. Not much has changed since ... Miss Thorne remains one of the most sort after names in any British porn fan's most wanted collection.