Where are they now?
Actress TESSA WYATT talks family life, why she wasn’t keen on comedy and why she has never been happier
Known to many for the hit Seventies comedy Robin’s Nest, actress Tessa Wyatt is still passionate about acting. But it’s family life that has made her truly content.
Born in 1948 in Surrey, she got the showbusiness bug when she went to Elmhurst Ballet School, whose alumni included Hayley Mills and Jenny Agutter. “My parents didn’t want me to become an actress,” she reveals. “But I was encouraged by my maternal grandmother.”
Tessa’s first acting job was on the BBC children’s TV series Mr Pastry, played by the bowlerhatted Richard Hearne. That job got her an agent and throughout the Seventies and Eighties she was barely out of work. However, during
this period it was often Tessa’s private life that put her in the headlines, particularly when she married DJ Tony Blackburn in 1972 aged just 24 – something she says she later regretted.
“I remember thinking, ‘I’m not going to get married until I’m at least 30 because I’ve got to make it and I’m sure
I’ll make it by the time I’m 30.’ Ironically that put me right into the public spotlight, but only because my husband was Tony Blackburn. Our marriage was over within two years, but people still say, ‘Weren’t you married to Tony?’ Our son, Simon, is now 44 and an advertising executive with two sons.”
Tessa never stopped working in the Seventies and Eighties, but not always on the kind of projects she desired. “I really wanted to be a straight classical Emma Thompson/Meryl Streep type of actress – I didn’t want to be known just for light entertainment.”
Yet it was the weekly sitcom Robin’s Nest which brought her mass attention. She starred in 48 episodes as Vicki Tripp, who helped her very disorganised husband Robin (Richard O’Sullivan) run a restaurant. “I’d already worked with Richard on the Doctor In The House sitcoms in which he played Dr Bingham. He had the best timing of any comedy actor on television. It was so much fun – we never stopped laughing.”
By the end of the second series, Tessa and Richard had become a real-life couple too, but after seven years together went their separate ways. They have a son, Jamie (38) who is a producer on ITV’s Lorraine and a father of two.
Today, Tessa is happily married to Bill Harkness, who is a property developer, and they have a daughter Joanna aged 31 and a son Jack (29).
Career-wise, Tessa (71) has appeared in EastEnders, Casualty and Doctors, and done occasional voiceovers, although she does consider herself retired. “I don’t miss the really busy
days. My heart beats at a normal rate now. I don’t have any of the awful nerves which never leave you as an actress. Now I mainly walk the dogs, play tennis and spend time with the family. My life is so much happier,” she says, adding modestly that she also helps raise funds for the Royal Marsden Hospital.
“I’ve had a pretty good career considering I started at 12 and enjoyed working with really great actors such as Michael Hordern, Ian Holm and Beryl Reid. I was a far better dramatic actress than I ever was at comedy.”