Louise Jameson
Encyclopedia
Louise Jameson is an English
actress, best known for playing Leela
, the leather-clad barbarian warrior companion
of the fourth
Doctor
in Doctor Who
. Jameson has also appeared on Emmerdale
(as Sharon Crossthwaite), The Omega Factor
(as Dr. Anne Reynolds), Tenko
(as Blanche Simmons), Bergerac
(as Susan Young) and EastEnders
(as Rosa di Marco
). She recently worked on BBC Scotland
soap River City
as Viv Roberts and is now a regular in Doc Martin
.
Jameson attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
and spent two years with the Royal Shakespeare Company
, performing in Romeo and Juliet
, The Taming of the Shrew
, King Lear
, Summerfolk, and Blithe Spirit
. In 1995 she appeared in the RSC production of Botho Strauß
's The Park. Other stage appearances include the first production of Peter Nichols
's Passion Play produced at the Aldwych Theatre, London, in 1981.
She reprised the character of Leela in the charity special Dimensions in Time
and for the Doctor Who audio plays produced by Big Finish Productions
.
Jameson had two sons in the 1980s, Harry and Tom. She is also good friends with her Big Finish Productions
co-star Lalla Ward
. In 2008, she guest starred in the Sapphire and Steel drama Wall of Darkness for the same company.
Jameson is the subject of MJTV's The Actor Speaks Volume 5, where she discusses herself, her acting career and the various series she has been in.
In 2007, Jameson toured nationally in her one-woman show, Face Value, inspired by her near decision to have a face-lift. In April 2008, she joined the cast of the BBC Scotland
soap opera River City.
In 2010, it was announced that she would be starring in the Dark Shadows
audio drama London's Burning
, written by Joseph Lidster
.
For many years she has lived in Tunbridge Wells
, Kent
.
Jameson was a regular visitor in British prison
s during the first few years of her career, and during the early 1970s she met Leslie Grantham
at Leyhill Prison in Gloucestershire
, while he was serving 12 years of a life sentence for murder
. She encouraged Grantham to be an actor, and by 1985 he had secured the role of Den Watts
in EastEnders
.
Jameson also works as a teacher of drama, directing youth productions of Shakespeare for local festivals. She also runs a Sunday Drama College, with branches in Tunbridge Wells and Eastbourne
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actress, best known for playing Leela
Leela (Doctor Who)
Leela is a fictional character played by Louise Jameson in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Leela was a companion of the Fourth Doctor and a regular in the programme from 1977 to 1978...
, the leather-clad barbarian warrior companion
Companion (Doctor Who)
In the long-running BBC television science fiction programme Doctor Who and related works, the term "companion" refers to a character who travels with, and shares the adventures of the Doctor. In most Doctor Who stories, the primary companion acts as both deuteragonist and audience surrogate...
of the fourth
Fourth Doctor
The Fourth Doctor is the fourth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC British television science-fiction series Doctor Who....
Doctor
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
in Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. Jameson has also appeared on Emmerdale
Emmerdale
Emmerdale, is a long-running British soap opera set in Emmerdale , a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, Emmerdale was first broadcast on 16 October 1972...
(as Sharon Crossthwaite), The Omega Factor
The Omega Factor
The Omega Factor is a British television series produced by BBC Scotland in 1979...
(as Dr. Anne Reynolds), Tenko
Tenko (TV series)
Tenko is a television drama, co-produced by the BBC and the ABC. A total of thirty episodes were produced between 1981 and 1984 for women, followed by a one-off special , Tenko Reunion, in 1985 - also for women in mind.The series dealt with the experiences of British, Australian and Dutch women...
(as Blanche Simmons), Bergerac
Bergerac (TV series)
Bergerac was a British television show set on Jersey. Produced by the BBC in association with the Seven Network, and screened on BBC1, it starred John Nettles as the title character Detective Sergeant Jim Bergerac, a detective in "Le Bureau des Étrangers" Bergerac was a British television show...
(as Susan Young) and EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
(as Rosa di Marco
Rosa di Marco
Rosa di Marco is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Louise Jameson. She is the mother of Beppe , Gianni , Teresa and Nicky di Marco .-Storylines:...
). She recently worked on BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland is a constituent part of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the publicly-funded broadcaster of the United Kingdom. It is, in effect, the national broadcaster for Scotland, having a considerable amount of autonomy from the BBC's London headquarters, and is run by the BBC Trust, who...
soap River City
River City
River City is a Scottish television soap opera, first broadcast in Scotland on BBC Scotland on 24 September 2002. River City storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional district of Shieldinch in Glasgow...
as Viv Roberts and is now a regular in Doc Martin
Doc Martin
Doc Martin is a British television comedy drama series starring Martin Clunes in the title role. It was created by Mark Crowdy, Craig Ferguson and Dominic Minghella. The show is filmed on location in the fishing village of Port Isaac, Cornwall, United Kingdom, with filming of most interior scenes...
.
Jameson attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school located in London, United Kingdom. It is generally regarded as one of the most renowned drama schools in the world, and is one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom, having been founded in 1904.RADA is an affiliate school of the...
and spent two years with the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
, performing in Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
, The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1591.The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the Induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken tinker named Sly into believing he is actually a nobleman himself...
, King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
, Summerfolk, and Blithe Spirit
Blithe Spirit (play)
Blithe Spirit is a comic play written by Noël Coward which takes its title from Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "To a Skylark" . The play concerns socialite and novelist Charles Condomine, who invites the eccentric medium and clairvoyant, Madame Arcati, to his house to conduct a séance, hoping to...
. In 1995 she appeared in the RSC production of Botho Strauß
Botho Strauß
Botho Strauss is a German playwright, novelist and essayist.-Biography:Botho Strauss's father was a chemist. After finishing his secondary education, Strauss studied German, History of the Theatre and Sociology in Cologne and Munich, but never finished his dissertation on Thomas Mann und das Theater...
's The Park. Other stage appearances include the first production of Peter Nichols
Peter Nichols
Peter Nichols FRSL is an English writer of stage plays, film and television.Born in Bristol, England, he was educated at Bristol Grammar School, and served his compulsory National Service as a clerk in Calcutta and later in the Combined Services Entertainments Unit in Singapore where he...
's Passion Play produced at the Aldwych Theatre, London, in 1981.
She reprised the character of Leela in the charity special Dimensions in Time
Dimensions in Time
Dimensions in Time is a charity special crossover between the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and the soap opera EastEnders that ran in two parts on 26 and 27 November 1993. It was filmed on the EastEnders Albert Square set, and features several of the stars of that programme...
and for the Doctor Who audio plays produced by Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
.
Jameson had two sons in the 1980s, Harry and Tom. She is also good friends with her Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
co-star Lalla Ward
Lalla Ward
Sarah Ward known as Lalla Ward, is an English actor, author and illustrator. As an actor, she is known for playing the part of Romana in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. She is married to evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.-Early career:Ward's stage name, "Lalla", comes...
. In 2008, she guest starred in the Sapphire and Steel drama Wall of Darkness for the same company.
Jameson is the subject of MJTV's The Actor Speaks Volume 5, where she discusses herself, her acting career and the various series she has been in.
In 2007, Jameson toured nationally in her one-woman show, Face Value, inspired by her near decision to have a face-lift. In April 2008, she joined the cast of the BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland is a constituent part of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the publicly-funded broadcaster of the United Kingdom. It is, in effect, the national broadcaster for Scotland, having a considerable amount of autonomy from the BBC's London headquarters, and is run by the BBC Trust, who...
soap opera River City.
In 2010, it was announced that she would be starring in the Dark Shadows
Dark Shadows
Dark Shadows is a gothic soap opera that originally aired weekdays on the ABC television network, from June 27, 1966 to April 2, 1971. The show was created by Dan Curtis. The story bible, which was written by Art Wallace, does not mention any supernatural elements...
audio drama London's Burning
London's Burning (Dark Shadows)
Dark Shadows: London's Burning is a Big Finish Productions original dramatic reading based on the long-running American horror soap opera series Dark Shadows.- Plot :...
, written by Joseph Lidster
Joseph Lidster
Joseph Lidster is an English television writer best known for his work on the Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.-Biography:His debut work was the audio play The Rapture for Big Finish Productions in 2002...
.
For many years she has lived in Tunbridge Wells
Royal Tunbridge Wells
Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in west Kent, England, about south-east of central London by road, by rail. The town is close to the border of the county of East Sussex...
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
.
Jameson was a regular visitor in British prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
s during the first few years of her career, and during the early 1970s she met Leslie Grantham
Leslie Grantham
Leslie Michael Grantham is an English actor best known for his role as "Dirty" Den Watts in the soap opera EastEnders. He is also a convicted murderer, having served 10 years for the killing of a German taxi driver, and he generated significant press coverage as the result of an online sex scandal...
at Leyhill Prison in Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
, while he was serving 12 years of a life sentence for murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
. She encouraged Grantham to be an actor, and by 1985 he had secured the role of Den Watts
Den Watts
Dennis Alan "Den" Watts is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by actor Leslie Grantham. He became well known for his tabloid nickname, "Dirty Den"....
in EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
.
Jameson also works as a teacher of drama, directing youth productions of Shakespeare for local festivals. She also runs a Sunday Drama College, with branches in Tunbridge Wells and Eastbourne
Eastbourne
Eastbourne is a large town and borough in East Sussex, on the south coast of England between Brighton and Hastings. The town is situated at the eastern end of the chalk South Downs alongside the high cliff at Beachy Head...
.