Jacqueline Pearce From Byfleet To Bush

by Jacqueline Pearce

“You have it in you to become the greatest actress of the 20th century ” – Sir Anthony Hopkins.

The actress Jacqueline Pearce is best known to television audiences as the villainous Servalan from the fondly remembered Blake’s Seven (BBC 1978-1981). But her career has taken her from RADA to Hollywood, via starring roles in international comedy films, Hammer Horror, BBC Shakespeare, and London’s West End. So how did she end up living in the African bush with her belongings in black bin-bags? Find out with this gripping memoir of an extraordinary life – from Byfleet to the Bush.

Jacqueline’s motherless upbringing in suburban Byfleet was unconventional and her education at the hands of nuns left her emotionally scarred. Through the course of her erratic career, she found love, laughter, heartache, breakdowns, fame, obscurity, and sex drugs and rock and roll. On the way, she encountered such stars as Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Sammy Davis Jr, Jerry Lewis, Alan Bates, John Hurt, Dervla Kirwan and Rupert Penry-Jones. Candid, vivid, mordant and funny, this is an unusual and enchanting memoir.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Doctor Who

Paperback

First published March 1, 2012

About the author

Jacqueline Pearce was trained at RADA and at Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio in Los Angeles. For the fans who enjoyed her performance as Servalan in "Blake's Seven" this is her most notable role

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jacqueline Pearce played Servalan (quite possibly one of the best female characters ever) in the tv show Blake's 7. When I bought a copy of the biography I knew nothing else about her. Then while I was waiting for it to be published I started reading her blog and discovered her to be quite an amazing woman. She has survived chronic depression, poverty and breast cancer and is now living in Africa where she was volunteering in a monkey shelter and is now looking after dogs.

This book is in many ways the opposite of a "celebrity autobiography". There are very few
stories with the rich and famous. The people she meets are portrayed through her honest impressions regardless of wealth and fame. Rather This is a story of a woman trying to stay afloat in life. A woman who just happens to be an actress. It is an inspiring story. Jacqueline remains struggling with her own mental illness and keeps fighting. Her life was strongly shaped by the fact that her mother left her and her father when Jacqueline was just a toddler and this rejection and insecurity plays a large part of the uncertainity that shapes the book.

But despite having a lot of sadness and poor choices there is also a great deal of humour in this book. I have so much respect for her and the way she keeps going. It is a very personal and honest story. If you are wanting inside stories on the making of Blake's 7 this really isn't the book for you (though I promise you will never see the transformation between 2nd and 3rd season Servalan the same again). But it was a fascinating read and I really hope that she writes more. She truly is an amazing and brave woman and I think her openness about her struggles will be inspiring to others.

[Jemma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Those of us 50ish, or older remember Blake's 7 fondly or not. We also remember that Jacqueline Pearce's character, Servalan and Avon, stole the show. Awkward, dark characters who surprised your expectations and had an across the barricades, sexual tension.

I rewatched Blake's 7 last year and their performances held up. I'd only meant to watch the first episode, which I'd never actually seen but ended up watching the whole thing. This made me curious about how Servalan came to be and I read Pearce's autobiography.

Ironically, she has very little to say about Blake's 7 but that makes perfect sense within the context of her life and career. For many others it would be the most interesting thing they'd ever done and they would go into depth. For Pearce it was something which happened when her head was elsewhere. Although her contributions, like insisting Servalan dress excessively femme, which perfectly counterpointed her hard, harsh, dark character, helped make the show.

Pearce had acquired a reputation as barking mad, which is hardly surprising when so much bad luck befell her. From her mother walking out on her, at just 18 months, in the 40s (when women weren't supposed to do such things), she has so many unfortunate events, that it would break anyone.

There are joys along the way though, signs of her talent and what might have been, of which Servalan is a great example. Then there's the anecdotes, which are liberally spread throughout the book. Any celebrity biography would love to have half of these. For a while, she was mistress to one of the Rat Pack, she had a relationship with a gay man and worked at an African monkey sanctuary. There's many more.

I'm a fan of honest biographies and my goodness was Pearce open and frank. You may well find yourself thinking being more circumspect but that's really not her. You will feel like you knew her, having read this. You'll cry for her misfortunes and wish that she had had more consistent career and personal success. Thank you for being so honest and I'm sorry you had it so unbearably tough.

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Watching Jacqueline Pearce as the sexy but terrifying villainess Servalan in "Blakes's 7", you would never believe that she was actually a mess inside, struggling with horrible anxiety and depression. But that is what this book reveals. Unfortunately for fans of B7, she does not actually talk much about the show; in fact, the only B7 cast member she mentions by name is Steven Pacey, as she became close to his family. She does, however, talk quite a bit about her time guest starring on "Doctor Who" in the story "The Two Doctors", as she enjoyed the location filming in Spain, and it seems to have been a fun experience. But this book is really about her lifelong struggle with issues that started with her mother abandoning the family as a child, a complicated relationship with her father, being taught by tyrannical nuns, and so on. Later on, an attempt at stardom in Hollywood ended in a full-blown nervous breakdown and she had to return to England. She has now given up acting and works with animals (monkeys) in South Africa! But that is how she has found meaning and happiness. This is an incredibly raw and honest autobiography and I cannot praise it too highly.

[Dan Sumption · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I imagine must be a wonderful book makes an even more wonderful audiobook when read by the author herself. Jacqueline Pearce talks frankly, movingly, and at times hilariously, about her difficult childhood, her life-long struggle with mental illness, and about how she finally learned to cope with her depression. Her experiences as an actress are mostly incedental to this, and her career-defining role in Blake's Seven warrants barely a couple of chapters, but the book is so captivating that this doesn't matter at all.

[Jefferson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating read that amounts to a character study of a unique individual facing a lifetime of emotional challenges. Blake's 7 fans are likely to be a little disappointed by the lack of coverage of her time on the show, but she does have nice things to say about Colin Baker and Patrick Troughton from her Doctor Who appearance.

[Justin Tuijl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb book, should be read by more people than just Blakes 7 fans. Discusses how mental health affects someone for life from the scars of childhood.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Light on Blake's 7 and containing a LOT of drama and peril! This book was a good read but could get a bit "reaalllly...?????" at times.