Nicola Pagett

Early life

Born in Cairo, Egypt, Nicola Pagett spent most of her childhood out of Britain — in Hong Kong, Cyprus and Japan, the family moving with her father who worked for a major oil company. She was educated at Saint Maur International School, in Yokohama, Japan, the oldest international school in Asia. In 1962 Nicola entered Britain's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she studied for two years.

Career

In 1964 Nicola appeared in several productions with Worthing Repertory Company. Then her performance in the television play Girl in the Picture caught the attention of Sir Robert Helpmann who cast her to tour with Vivien Leigh in the stage play La Contessa.

After starring as Florence Maybrick in an episode of Wicked Women and appearing as Elizabeth Bellamy in the British series Upstairs, Downstairs, Pagett played the title role in a 1977 BBC adaptation of Anna Karenina and also gave a memorable performance in David Nobbs's TV series A Bit of a Do. She appeared in a variety of films including The Viking Queen (1967), Some Like It Sexy (1969), There's a Girl in My Soup (1970), Frankenstein: The True Story (1973), Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), Operation Daybreak (1975), Oliver's Story (1978) and An Awfully Big Adventure (1995). She appeared in leading roles (as the young Irish bride Conor) in the 1980 Australian mini-series The Timeless Land and in the 1994 to 1995 sitcom Ain't Misbehavin'. In May 1976 she was appearing as Bella Manningham in GASLIGHT at the Criterion Theatre, London, with Peter Vaughan and Anton Rodgers.

Personal life

In 1995, while appearing in What The Butler Saw at the National Theatre, she began behaving erratically and was ultimately diagnosed as having acute bipolar disorder. During this time she developed an obsession with Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's chief press secretary.

Family

She was married to playwright Graham Swannell; the couple had a daughter, but they divorced in 1998.