Janet Fielding

Early life and career

Fielding was born in Brisbane. After spending some of her childhood schooldays in America, Janet went on to study at Queensland University, from which she graduated with a degree in English. She planned to become a reporter for the ABC (then the Australian Broadcasting Commission), and journalism had been a major part of her degree course. Instead, she moved to Britain to become an actress. After arriving in Britain she joined an actors' cooperative.

As 'Janet Clare Fielding' she made her UK TV debut in the Hammer House of Horror episode "Charlie Boy", which aired in October 1980 as it was announced she had been cast as the next Doctor Who companion. She got the Doctor Who companion role after a number of interviews and auditions. She was asked to change her hair colour to avoid being mistaken for co-star Matthew Waterhouse.

Between 1981 and 1984, Fielding played the part of Tegan Jovanka, a companion of the Fourth Doctor (played by Tom Baker), and later of the Fifth Doctor, (Peter Davison). She made a guest appearance on Jim'll Fix It in a Doctor Who-related sketch alongside Colin Baker's Doctor in 1985 (A Fix with Sontarans). She played Mel during Sylvester McCoy's audition for the part of the Seventh Doctor. In 1984 she had a role in the ITV children's drama Murphy's Mob, followed in 1985 with a part in Hold The Back Page.

In 1991, Fielding gave up acting to take up an administrative position with Women in Film and Television UK. While she maintained the administrative position for only three and a half years, she continued with the group afterwards, managing the Skillset study on successful women in television in 2009. During that time, Fielding worked as a theatrical agent, at one point representing Paul McGann when he took the role of the Eighth Doctor.

She returned to acting and the role of Tegan for Big Finish Productions audio plays including The Gathering (2006), Cobwebs and The Cradle of the Snake (2010) alongside Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor. In the past she has shown reluctance to reprise the role, but she has since confirmed that she will be appearing as Tegan in further audio stories in the future. Fielding has also provided audio commentaries for several DVD releases of Tegan's Doctor Who stories. She also appeared in DVD extras for Frontier in Space and Planet of the Daleks, stories in which she did not appear, where she provided critiques on the portrayal of female characters in the serials.

Fielding has also worked as the head of finance for a charity. She is Project Co-ordinator for Project MotorHouse, a charity based in Ramsgate, UK, which aims to modernise the old motor museum into a multi-use venue featuring offices, bars, a restaurant, a café and cinemas, where local youths will have a chance to learn from successful businesses.

Although she has avoided fan conventions in the past, Fielding appeared at the Supanova Pop Culture convention at the Gold Coast in Australia during April 2012. Fielding organised two Doctor Who conventions for 2013 to help raise funds for Project MotorHouse. The conventions were called ProjectMotorMouth.

In August 2013, Fielding contributed to the one-off special show Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor in an interview segment with other companions and Doctors, and appeared in the 50th anniversary comedy homage The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot.

Personal life

In 1982 Fielding married Daily Mirror foreign editor Nicholas Davies. They divorced in 1991. In September 2012 Fielding was revealed to be fighting cancer.