Nicola Pagett

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. In 1962 Pagett entered Britain's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art where she studied for two years.

In 1964 Nicola appeared in several productions with Worthing Repertory Company. Then her performance in the television play The 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.

In 1965 she appeared in Incorporated Television Company's (ITC) production of Gideon's Way, episode 10 , "How to Retire without Really Working" in an uncredited role as girl at railway station. Also in 1965, under the casting credit name "Nicola Paget" she appeared in Gideon's Way series 1 episode 15 called "The Alibi Man".

This was followed in 1975 by an appearance in the British television police drama, The Sweeney. Pagett appeared in the episode Stoppo Driver in which she played the character of Sara Prince, part of a family of criminals involved in the kidnap of the wife of Detective Constable Brian Cooney, a Flying Squad driver.

She played the title role in a 1977 BBC adaptation of Anna Karenina and 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), Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), There's a Girl in My Soup (1970), Frankenstein: The True Story (1973), 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.

She was diagnosed with manic depression in 1997, after becoming obsessed with the then prime minister's chief press secretary. She relates in her book, Diamonds Behind My Eyes, that she later recovered.