STAR’S ROLE IN RISE OF ‘DIRTY DEN’
good friend since he played the fourth Dr Who and she was his scantily clad assistant Leela from 1977 to 1978.
“I see Tom once every two months. We record audio for a podcast so I get to reprise Leela, and imagine being in my 20s and running around in whatever I was supposed to be wearing.
“At the time I didn’t think it was gratuitous – in retrospect, it probably was. The director said they wanted something for the dads. Dr Who was on just after the football results, so it was quite deliberate. I’m told it won over two million extra viewers.
“But I maintain she was feisty, not educated but intelligent. Even though they took her clothes off, they did make her energised and innovative.” Diners might do a double take to see Louise and the cast of Tenko – a 1980s TV series about women held by the Japanese as prisoners of war – enjoying London’s smart restaurants.
“I know it’s soppy and actors say it all the time, but I feel I have a second family with the Tenko cast.
“Stephanie Beacham, Veronica Roberts, Ann Bell, Stephanie Cole and Lavinia Warner who devised it. We meet up very regularly for lunch and at births, hospitals, marriages. We champion each other. We don’t want it to be a funeral because we’re not all around.”
They share news, swap scripts and privately discuss their experiences of sexual harassment at work. “Have men at work overstepped the mark with me? Yes. But I wouldn’t dream of putting it in print. I think you’d be hard pushed to find an actress my age who couldn’t ruin a career or two because of their experiences in the 70s or 80s.”
Talk during the Tenko reunions often turns to cosmetic surgery, too.
“We always chat about whether or not to have facelifts. I don’t want to go anywhere near one. I feel quite heavily against even Botox. Why would you put poison that close to your brain?”
BBC producers have cast her in new sitcom Bumps, with Amanda Redman as Anita – a woman who has a baby in her 60s. “I play her very disapproving sister,” she says. “She’s really unsympathetic but kind of hilarious.”
Louise is also directing a thriller Revenge, on tour in the UK until
March 28, but of all her roles, her best has been as mother to sons Harry, 37, and Tom, 35. She says: “I’ve been married once, not to either father, and I don’t consider it a failed marriage but a wonderful marriage that had its day.
“I have three grandsons and now my boys constantly say, ‘How did you do it?’.
“I love it. I’m single at the moment. Would I like to meet someone? Maybe. If it happens, it happens.
“I won’t try online dating though. Just like Botox, it’s just not for me.”
Louise Jameson is directing the play Revenge, which is touring the UK. To book tickets, visit crimeand comedytheatrecompany.co.uk