# Jane Asher

Jane Asher (born 5 April 1946) is an English actress and author. She achieved early fame as a child actress and through her association with Paul McCartney; she has worked extensively in film and TV throughout her career.
Asher has appeared in TV shows and films such as Deep End (1970), The Masque of the Red Death (1964), Alfie (1966), The Mistress, Crossroads, Death at a Funeral (2007), and The Old Guys. She also appeared in two episodes of the 1950s TV series The Buccaneers alongside Robert Shaw. She was famously Paul McCartney's girlfriend from 1963 to 1968.
Asher has been nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the film Deep End and the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress for television performances in A Voyage Round My Father (1982) and Love Is Old, Love Is New (1982).

## Early life

Asher was born in London, the middle of three children born to Richard and Margaret Asher, née Eliot. Her father was a consultant in blood and mental diseases at the Central Middlesex Hospital, as well as being a broadcaster and the author of notable medical articles. Her mother was a professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Asher was educated at North Bridge House School and Miss Lambert's PNEU School for Girls at Paddington, then at Queen's College in Harley Street, London. Asher's elder brother is record producer and manager Peter Asher, who began his career as Peter of Peter and Gordon.

## Acting career

Asher was a child actress who appeared in the 1952 film Mandy and the 1955 science fiction film The Quatermass Xperiment. She also played the title role in dramatised versions of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass in 1958 for Argo Records. In 1961 she co-starred in The Greengage Summer, which was released in the United States as Loss of Innocence. She also appeared in the 1962 film and Disney TV programme, The Prince and the Pauper. Her British TV appearances included three episodes (1956–1958) of the ITV series The Adventures of Robin Hood and as a panellist on the BBC's Juke Box Jury.
Asher appeared in Roger Corman's The Masque of the Red Death (1964) with Vincent Price, in Alfie opposite Michael Caine in 1966, and in Jerzy Skolimowski's Deep End (1970) with John Moulder Brown.
Having played Alice herself as an 11-year-old child in the audio recordings of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass in 1958, Asher played the real Alice's (Alice Liddell) mother, Lorina Liddell, in the 1985 Dennis Potter film Dreamchild alongside Coral Browne (Alice Hargreaves), Ian Holm (Lewis Carroll/Charles Dodgson), Peter Gallagher, and Amelia Shankley (young Alice).
On television, she guest-starred in the play The Stone Tape and in episodes of Wicked Women, Rumpole of the Bailey and the British television comedy series The Goodies, as Celia Ryder in the 1981 Granada Television adaptation of Brideshead Revisited, and later in A Voyage Round My Father opposite Laurence Olivier, The Mistress (1985–87), and as Faith Ashley in Wish Me Luck (three seasons from 1987 to 1989).
In 1994, she portrayed the Doctor Who companion Susan Foreman in a BBC Radio 4 comedy drama Whatever Happened to Susan Foreman? Another notable radio broadcast was in The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in 2002, in the episode "The Peculiar Persecution of Mr John Vincent Harden".
In 2003, she appeared in the revived ITV soap Crossroads in which she played the hotel's owner Angel Sampson. After the soap was axed, Asher apologised to Crossroads fans for the way the 2003 series went.
In 2004, she starred in Festen at the Arts Theatre. In 2005, she starred in The World's Biggest Diamond, by Gregory Motton, at the Royal Court Theatre. In 2006, Asher starred in the Richard Fell adaptation of the 1960s science fiction series A for Andromeda, which aired on the British digital television station BBC Four. In 2007, she portrayed the widow Sandra in the Frank Oz film Death at a Funeral. In the same year Asher appeared in the BBC medical drama Holby City as Lady Byrne. In October 2007, she played Andrea Yates in The Sarah Jane Adventures, in the episode "Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?" Asher co-starred in the 2008 ITV drama series The Palace, filmed in Lithuania; she played Queen Charlotte, mother of King Richard IV.
In August 2008, Asher appeared with other showbusiness personalities in the reality TV talent show-themed television series Maestro, broadcast on BBC Two. From 2009 to 2010, she played Sally in the BBC One comedy series The Old Guys. In 2011, she played Margaret Harker in Waterloo Road.
In October 2009, she appeared as Delia in Peter Hall's revival of Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce at the Rose Theatre, Kingston, and in her first pantomime, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at Richmond Theatre in December 2009, receiving enthusiastic reviews for both. In 2011, she returned to the Rose, Kingston as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest.
In 2012, she appeared in Charley's Aunt at the Menier Chocolate Factory. In the summer of 2013, she played Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Pride and Prejudice at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park. In 2014, she starred in the stage adaptation of Penelope Lively's Moon Tiger at the Theatre Royal Bath and on tour. In 2016, Asher took on the role of Miss Havisham in Michael Eaton's adaptation of Great Expectations. She took on the role of Madame Baurel in the 2017 London stage production of An American in Paris. In 2019 she toured in Noël Coward's A Song at Twilight. In 2024 she toured in Somerset Maugham's The Circle.

## Other work

Asher has written three novels: The Longing, The Question, and Losing It, and published more than a dozen lifestyle, costuming, and cake decorating books. Asher owns a company that makes party cakes and sugar crafts for special occasions.
She is a shareholder in Private Eye, president of Arthritis Care, and a patron of Scoliosis Association (UK).
She is also president of the National Autistic Society. She was a speaker at the 2006 launch of the National Autistic Society's "Make School Make Sense" campaign and is president of Parkinson's UK. In March 2010, Asher became vice president to Autistica, a UK charity raising funds for autism research. Asher is also a patron of TRACKS Autism, an early years nursery setting for children on the autistic spectrum and The Daisy Garland, a national registered charity supporting children with drug resistant epilepsy.

## Personal life

Asher met Paul McCartney on 18 April 1963 at Royal Albert Hall in London, and began a five-year relationship with him. In December 1963, McCartney took up residence at Asher's family Wimpole Street townhouse and stayed there until the couple moved into McCartney's own home in St John's Wood in 1966. McCartney wrote several Beatles songs inspired by Asher, including "And I Love Her", "We Can Work It Out", "You Won't See Me", "I'm Looking Through You", "What You're Doing", "Things We Said Today" and "For No One". The couple announced on Christmas Day 1967 that they were engaged to be married, and Asher accompanied the Beatles and their partners to Rishikesh in early 1968 to attend an advanced transcendental meditation training session with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. In mid-1968, she returned to London from an acting assignment in Bristol earlier than expected and allegedly discovered McCartney in bed with Francie Schwartz. Shortly afterwards, Margaret Asher drove to Cavendish Avenue to collect her daughter's things.
On 20 July 1968, Asher announced to the BBC that her engagement had been called off. McCartney soon after started dating Linda Eastman, whom he married in 1969. A problem in the relationship had been McCartney's drug use and close relationship with John Lennon. Asher confided to Beatles' biographer Hunter Davies that McCartney had "changed so much. He was on LSD, which I hadn't shared. I was jealous of all the spiritual experiences he'd had with John. There were fifteen people dropping in all day long. The house had changed and was full of stuff I didn't know about."
Asher attended the 1970 London premiere of the Beatles' movie Let It Be, along with Lennon's ex-wife Cynthia.
In 1971, Asher met illustrator Gerald Scarfe. They married in 1981 and have three children. Asher dislikes discussing her relationship with McCartney; she said in 2004: "I've been happily married for 30-something years. It's insulting."

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1952 | Mandy | Nina Roads | |
| 1955 | The Quatermass Xperiment | Little Girl | |
| 1956 | Charley Moon | Benesta | |
| 1961 | The Greengage Summer | Hester Grey | Released as The Loss of Innocence in the U.S. |
| 1963 | Girl in the Headlines | Lindy Birkett | Released as The Model Murder Case in the U.S. |
| 1964 | The Masque of the Red Death | Francesca | |
| 1966 | Alfie | Annie | |
| 1967 | The Winter's Tale | Perdita | |
| 1970 | Deep End | Susan | |
| 1970 | The Buttercup Chain | Margaret | |
| 1972 | Henry VIII and His Six Wives | Jane Seymour | |
| 1983 | Runners | Helen | |
| 1984 | Success Is the Best Revenge | Bank Manager | |
| 1985 | Dreamchild | Mrs. Liddell | |
| 1988 | Paris by Night | Pauline | |
| 1993 | Closing Numbers | Anna | |
| 2006 | Tirant lo Blanc | Empress of Visaantia | |
| 2007 | Death at a Funeral | Sandra | |
| 2013 | I Give It a Year | Diana | |
| 2015 | Drunk on Love | Miss Sharp | |
| 2015 | Burn Burn Burn | Amelia | |
| 2021 | Splinter | Psychiatrist | |
| 2024 | A Family Affair | Margaret | |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1956 | The Adventures of Robin Hood | Alice | Episode 28: "The Children of Greenwood" |
| 1961 | Home Tonight | Kathy | 5 episodes |
| 1962 | The Prince and the Pauper | Lady Jane Grey | 3 episodes |
| 1964 | The Saint | Rose Yearley | Episode: "The Noble Sportsman" |
| 1964 | The Saint | Ellen Chase | Episode: "The Invisible Millionaire" |
| 1968 | Journey to the Unknown | Marielle | Episode: "Somewhere in the Crowd" |
| 1972 | The Stone Tape | Jill Greely | TV movie |
| 1972 | Hedda Gabler | Thea Elvsted | TV movie |
| 1970 | Wicked Women | Anne-Maria Moody | Episode: "Anne-Maria Moody" |
| 1973 | Wessex Tales | Lucy Saville | Episode: "Fellow Townsmen" |
| 1977 | The Goodies | Caroline Kook | Episode: "Punky Business" |
| 1978 | Hawkmoor | Lady Johane Williams | 5 episodes |
| 1978 | Hazell | Georgina Gunning | Episode: "Hazell Plays Solomon" |
| 1978 | Rumpole of the Bailey | Kathy Trelawny | Episode: "Rumpole and the Alternative Society" |
| 1981 | Brideshead Revisited | Celia Ryder | 2 episodes |
| 1982 | East Lynne | Emma Vane | TV movie |
| 1984 | A Voyage Round My Father | Elizabeth | TV movie |
| 1984 | Tales of the Unexpected | Jane Oats | Episode: "The Last of the Midnight Gardeners" |
| 1985 | The Mistress | Helen Carpenter | 6 episodes |
| 1988 | Wish Me Luck | Faith Ashley | 22 episodes |
| 1990 | French and Saunders | Herself | Episode: “Episode 7” |
| 1991 | Murder Most Horrid | Lydia Howling | Episode : "The Girl from Ipanema" |
| 1993 | French and Saunders | Herself | Episode: “In Bed with French and Saunders” |
| 2003 | Crossroads | Angel Sampson | 18 episodes |
| 2004 | Agatha Christie's Marple | Mrs. Sylvia Lester | Episode: "Murder at the Vicarage" |
| 2005 | New Tricks | Lady Deeley | Episode: "17 Years of Nothing" |
| 2006 | A for Andromeda | Professor Madeleine Dawnay | TV movie |
| 2007 | The Sarah Jane Adventures | Andrea Yates | 2 episodes; Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? |
| 2007–2010 | Holby City | Lady Byrne | 23 episodes |
| 2008 | The Palace | Queen Charlotte | 8 episodes |
| 2009–2010 | The Old Guys | Sally | 12 episodes |
| 2010 | Agatha Christie's Poirot | Lady Mary | Episode: "Three Act Tragedy" |
| 2011 | Waterloo Road | Margaret Harker | 1 episode |
| 2013 | Dancing on the Edge | Mrs. Luscombe | 3 episodes |
| 2015 | Stella | Hazel | 3 episodes |
| 2015 | Crossing Lines | Jane Clerkenwell | 2 episodes |
| 2015–2016 | Eve | Mary Douglas | 13 episodes |
| 2015–2016 | Best Bakes Ever | Herself | Presenter: 24 episodes |
| 2023 | The Wedding Veil Journey | Lady Dalton | TV movie |