Where are they now?
From Doctor Who to Tenko, actress LOUISE JAMESON reflects on her acting career, how ‘Little Miss Muffet’ changed her life and being a proud gran…
No matter what Louise Jameson turns her hand to professionally, she can be guaranteed one thing. There will always be Doctor Who fans there to cheer her on. Louise (69), who played Tom Baker’s leather-clad companion Leela from 1977 to 1978, laughs: “They are the most loyal fans in the world.”
And there’s another reason to celebrate her stint with the Tardis traveller. “A ten-month job in 1977 and 1978 has turned into my pension too!” she says.
Born in Essex to insurance broker David Jameson and his accountant wife Marion, Louise’s destiny seemed set early. “Aged four, I played Little Miss Muffet and did it rather well so I got a huge round of applause, which I loved. I decided then that’s what I’d do.” From 17 she trained at RADA, then spent two years with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
But her big break came in 1977, landing the role in Doctor Who and beating 25 actresses, including All Creatures Great and Small’s Carol Drinkwater.
“Leela broke ground. She was intelligent, took over some of the action, and wasn’t always being rescued – she did some of the rescuing. Women’s Lib was just coming to Britain, so they made her much feistier to ride that wave,” says Louise.
So who was her favourite Time Lord?
“It has to be Patrick Troughton. Tom Baker was very eccentric and it’s no secret we didn’t get on in the Seventies, but we are big friends now.”
After a stint back in theatre in 1981, Louise starred in the awardwinning series Tenko, the BBC drama set in a Japanese internment camp in the Second World War. Louise played Blanche Simmons in the first two series. “I’m so grateful for that role. I think it was the highlight of my career. It was beautifully written. Working with creative, brilliant, wonderful women was amazing. And we are all still in touch.”
For five years in the late Eighties, Louise played Jim Bergerac’s (John Nettles’) girlfriend Susan in the BBC’s Jersey-based detective series, followed by a two-and-a-half year run as restaurant-owner Rosa di Marco in EastEnders, appearing in more than 200 episodes until Rosa died from a heart attack. “It wasn’t my choice to leave. I would have stayed longer. They could have got some lovely stories out of that family for a good few years after that,” she says.
Today she lives in a Victorian cottage in Tunbridge Wells with her dog, and is amicably divorced from artist Martin Bedford. From other relationships Louise has sons Tom (35) and Harry (37) who are both in the fitness business. “I love them so much. I have three grandsons as well, whom I adore.”
Currently single, Louise says: “I really like the idea of a ‘living apart together’ relationship, but I’m fine.”
Next year she will celebrate her 70th birthday with a huge party and a holiday in Goa, lockdown permitting. So what are her plans for the future? “I would love to do one major movie. And it would be fantastic to go back to Doctor Who!”