Janet Fielding

Janet Mahoney - now better known by her stage name of Janet Fielding - was born in Brisbane, Australia, in 1953. She gained A levels in Physics, Chemistry and Maths and joined Queensland University, where she first took up acting. After leaving university she worked with an English writer/director named Albert Hunt, who in 1977 brought her to England in one of his shows.

Once in England, she joined Ken Campbell at the Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool and appeared in productions including "The Warp" and "The End is Nigh." Following this she won a small part in an episode of the Hammer House of Horror (1980) series. She was then cast in Doctor Who (1963) as the Australian airline stewardess Tegan Jovanka in Tom Baker's final serial Logopolis: Part One (1981), and became the longest-running companion of Peter Davison's Doctor, appearing until Resurrection of the Daleks: Part Two (1984). After leaving the series, she appeared in episodes of the ITV series Shelley (1979) and Minder (1979) and in productions of "The Collector" and the pantomime "Aladdin" in the theatre.

In 1991, she gave up acting to work as an administrator in the pressure group Women in Film and Television, where she stayed for three-and-a-half years. She then became a director of Marina Martin Associates, an actors' agency, representing amongst others the Eighth Doctor, Paul McGann.