Susan Jameson

Jameson began acting at the age of the 10 when she enrolled at a speech and drama school in Birmingham; she broke into professional acting in the late 1950's, working for various repertory theatre companies based in Birmingham, Glasgow, Coventry and Cheltenham respectively.^[5][6] In 1962, she made her television debut appearing in an episode of Dixon of Dock Green. The following year she secured for her first major television role as Myra Booth (née Dickinson) in Coronation Street, featuring in 52 episodes between 1963 and 1964, she was offered a further two year contract to continue with part, but she subsequently declined.^[7][8] During this period, Jameson appeared in a number of television shows including The Likely Lads, No Hiding Place, Z-Cars, Strange Report, UFO, The Doctors, Softly Softly: Task Force and Space 1999.

In 1969, she appeared as Kate in the first series of Take Three Girls, which follows the lives of three young women who share a bedsit in West Kensington.^[9] In 1974, she featured in the final series of Special Branch, as Detective Sergeant Mary Holmes.^[10] Between 1976 to 1981, she played Jessie Seaton (later Jessie Ashton) in all four series of the period drama When the Boat Comes In, appearing alongside her husband James Bolam. In 1980, she appeared as prospective Labour candidate Christine Forster in the mini-series To Serve Them All My Days. She later reprised her role as Kate in Take Three Women in 1982 (the follow up to Take Three Girls) which reunited the original characters Victoria, Kate and Avril after going their separate ways in the intervening years.^[11] She also appeared in various sitcoms including The Upchat Line, Rings on Their Fingers, Hi-de-Hi!, Home to Roost, Hell's Bells, Never The Twain and All in Good Faith.^[12] In 1987, she played Aunt Em in the children's serial The Secret World of Molly Flint for TVS, two years later she appeared in an episode of Boon as Judy Shelley, a mentally ill mother who seeks refuge at Woodcote Park.^[13]

Jameson has continued to appear in supporting roles on television and film, appearing in Casualty, Woof!, Heartbeat, The Girl (1996), The Bill, Two Days, Nine Lives (2001), Dalziel and Pascoe, Holby City, Doctors, Grandpa in My Pocket, Him, Midsomer Murders and All Creatures Great and Small.^[2] Between 2003 and 2013, she appeared in New Tricks as Esther Lane, the long-suffering wife of ex-Detective Inspector Brian Lane (played by Alun Armstrong), she featured in ten series before she departed along with Armstrong in 2013.^[14] In 2009, she was one of five actresses portraying Queen Elizabeth II in the docu-drama series The Queen, which charted pivotal years in the monarch's life.^[15]

She is married to fellow actor James Bolam, with whom she has appeared in numerous episodes of various television series, including The Likely Lads, When The Boat Comes In, New Tricks and Grandpa in My Pocket, as well appearing on stage on a number of occasions including Macbeth and A Fool and His Money^[16][17] They have lived in Wisborough Green, West Sussex for more than 30 years.^[18]

Jameson has also worked as a writer, including three episodes of The Hoobs, and the semi-autobiographical Pony Tails, a collection of four short stories based on the ponies she and her family have owned over the years.^[19] Jameson is a patron of the Chichester Festival Youth Theatre and president of the ABC Animal Sanctuary in West Chiltington and the Cat and Rabbit Rescue Centre in Sidlesham. She has also been involved in a number of animal charities, including the Hawk and Owl Trust, Compassion in World Farming and Merrylegs Assisted Riding, where she latterly helped young disabled horse riders at Brinsbury College in Pulborough.^[4]