Jane

In the pantheon of 1960s British actresses (led by Julie Christie, Susannah York, Sarah Miles, Rita Tushingham etc), Jane Asher was the posh one, with that standout long red hair. A child actress, she was Susannah York’s young sister in THE GREENGAGE SUMMER in 1961, and we liked her in Roger Corman’s 1964 THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH –she was interesting on radio recently saying she enjoyed working on it and with Vincent Price. 

She was also one of ALFIE’s girls in 1966, and went on to a lot of interesting items like Skolimowski’s DEEP END in 1970 – now on Bluray with lots of extra interviews, where she is the perfect 1960s dolly bird with those white boots and yellow PVC mac setting off the hair. She also did a lot of television and stage (I saw her with Laurence Harvey in Shakespeare’s THE WINTER’S TALE in 1967), and she is currently part of the hit musical AN AMERICAN IN PARIS ensemble., 
and I am watching a boxset of the 1980s war drama WISH ME LUCK, which we enjoyed at the time, where she is ideal as Faith Ashley, organiser of the secret agents operating in France during World War II. She was also in BRIDESHEAD REVISTED among others, and er, the short-lived rebooted CROSSROADS.

She was of course famous in the 1960s as also being Paul McCartney’s girlfriend – he lived for a time with her parents at their Wimpole Street address. Her brother Peter was part of  Peter & Gordon and later record producer for the likes of James Taylor. She has though never capitalised on her Beatles connections, and was also later famous for her cakes and baking, Perhaps she should take over THE GREAT BRITSH BAKE-OFF ? She is married to cartoonist Gerard Scarfe and it is always a pleasure to see her. She even tackled Lady Bracknell a few years ago. We should have seen that. 

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