Who's that girl?

OVER the coming months, Leisure will be interviewing show business personalities appearing in the North-West. We begin with actress Louise Jameson who rose to fame as Dr Who's assistant Leela. She now finds herself back on stage with another Dr Who old boy', Colin Baker in Corpse! at Blackpool's Grand Theatre...

LOUISE Jameson was just four when she ventured out onto her prep school stage and won acclaim as Little Miss Muffet. She lapped up the limelight and "never wavered" in her new-found ambition to tread the boards.

Her drive to perform has led to a long and winding career on stage and screen, with varied roles in series such as Dr Who, Bergerac, Tenko and EastEnders.

Known as Lou by friends and colleagues, she joined an amateur dramatics group at the age of 12, before training at Rada five years later, winning the Shakespearian Award for Best Classical Performance.

Three subsequent years with the Royal Shakespeare Company saw her in numerous performances at Stratford, London and America.

Louise's role models were class acts such as Vanessa Redgrave and Judi Dench, but her greatest inspiration was her mother.

"My mum was the queen of amateur dramatics and had she been born in a different era would have been a professional actress," she said. "But she chose motherhood and kept her artistic side to the am-drams."

The self-confessed "Essex girl", who now lives in Kent, said: "I'd be lying if I said I loved every minute of this job I have been doing it for 34 years and it's been a mixed bag.

"But I have always preferred the stage to TV even though the bank balance doesn't! In a studio you are very dependent on the lighting and cameramen. You still find the truth and essence of the character but you only have one day at it. It might take four or five takes but on tour you have as much as six months. It is work in progress."

Louise is probably best known as Rosa di Marco in EastEnders; a role she particularly enjoyed because of the close friendship she had with her four screen children.

But despite the camaraderie within the cast, television work can be a strain, she said.

"Sometimes we did 16 scenes a day. It is almost like doing a major film."

She has also done six other series for the BBC including Tom Brown's School Days, Dr Who, Omega Factor, Bergerac, Rides and Tenko, and has recently filmed a Bafta-nominated short' called After Alice.

Her preferred stage role was Mary Queen of Scots during The Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the early 1990s, while Blanche Simmons in prisoner-of-war drama Tenko is her personal screen favourite.

"She was everything I didn't quite dare to be. I am actually quite a "good girl". I turn up to rehearsals on time, learn my lines quickly, get on well with people. Blanche didn't give a toss, was outrageous and amazingly promiscuous."

Years later Louise is still in touch with much of the cast.

"I meet up with the Tenko crowd still about two to three times a year. We all stay in touch with each other because it was an all-female cast it had a different atmosphere."

She added: "Bergerac still holds some recognition for me and there's still a huge Dr Who following people have been writing to me for over 25 years. I still do conventions although not an awful lot."

Louise was assistant Leela to Tom Baker's Dr Who. But Louise ruefully confessed she rarely tunes in to watch television these days.

Theatre is her first love and when she is not performing she can invariably be found among the audience. She is also a Radio 4 addict and has a great love of live music, especially world tunes.

"I am passionate about live music. There's a whole different energy about live music."

But despite that, and the fact her son Tom is a talented DJ, she said she was definitely not a natural for musicals.

"Singing scares me. I can sing brilliantly in the bath and in the car like anyone but I go flat when I get nervous. I am trying to force myself through it because it broadens the parts I can do."

Asked how she balanced work with her family, the mother-of-two said: "I am like every working mum I live with this eternal guilt. Even though they are 18 and 20 I still worry if I haven't cooked a meal in the week.

"I always choose my jobs with them in mind. I used to do crazy things like commute (from London) to Bristol just to see them for breakfast."

Last year Louise and her partner, in every sense of the word, David Warwick started TLC Productions, with a view to producing/performing and directing new writing. They debuted shortly afterwards with their two-hander Sex Wars.

The couple are now working together on the award-winning comedy thriller Corpse! at Blackpool's Grand Theatre.

This wickedly twisted comedy-thriller, written by Gerald Moon, is a riotous whodunit which sees Louise on stage with another former Dr Who, Colin Baker.

Louise, who is writing a children's Christmas musical for this year's festivities, has worked extensively with children and students of all ages, as a tutor and director, in the UK and America.

Her dalliance with directing has left her wanting to do more.

But the actress stressed: "I would never give up performing. I love it too much and I have too much of an ego and it needs feeding."

l Corpse! runs at Blackpool Grand Theatre from Monday, March 17 to Saturday, March 22. Tickets (£11 and concessions) are on sale from The Grand Theatre box office on 01253 290190.

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