Creator / Jacqueline Pearce

"I'd been a masturbatory fantasy for an entire generation of young men. I mean, that made a girl feel good."

— On her role as Servalan in Blake's 7

Jacqueline Pearce (20 December 1943 – 3 September 2018) was a British actress. She was known for playing the seductive villainess Servalan in Blake's 7, although she had a long career in British television, including guest appearances in many cult series.

She would later reprise the role of Servalan for Big Finish, appearing in a series of Blake's 7 audio plays until shortly before her death in 2018.

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Works

Television

• Danger Man, episode "Don't Nail Him Yet" (1964) — Jeannie
• The Avengers, episode "A Sense of History" (1966) — Marianne
• Man in a Suitcase, episodes:
  • "Sweet Sue" (1967) — Miss Brown
  • "Somebody Loses, Somebody...Wins?" (1968) — Ruth Klinger
• Callan, episode "Once a Big Man, Always a Big Man" (1969) — Eva Watt
• The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, episode "The Case of the Dixon Torpedo" (1971) — Jenny Pryde
• Blake's 7, 29 episodes^{show list} "Seek-Locate-Destroy", "Project Avalon", "Deliverance", "Orac", "Weapon", "Pressure Point", "Trial", "Killer", "Hostage", "Voice From The Past", "Gambit", "The Keeper", "Star One", "Aftermath", "Powerplay", "Volcano", "The Harvest of Kairos", "Children of Auron", "Rumours of Death", "Moloch", "Death-Watch", "Terminal", "Traitor", "Animals", "Assassin", "Games", "Sand", "Gold", "Orbit", "Warlord", "Blake" (1978–1981) — Servalan
• Doctor Who, serial "The Two Doctors" (1985) — Chessene
• Doctors, episode "A Rose for Delilah" (2005) — Henrietta Fosdyke
• CASUAL+Y, 2 episodes (2006) — Elspeth Lang

Film

• Genghis Khan (1965) — Shah's Daughter
• The Plague of the Zombies (1966) — Alice Tompson
• Don't Lose Your Head (1967) — Lady
• How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989) — Maud

Audio Play

• Big Finish Doctor Who:
  • Main range: "The Fearmonger" (2000) — Sherilyn Harper
  • Sarah Jane Smith: 3 releases^{show list} "Buried Secrets", "Snow Blind", "Fatal Consequences" (2006) — The Keeper
  • The Lost Stories: "Hexagora" (2011) — Zafira, Bev
  • The War Doctor: 12 releases^{show list} The Innocent, The Thousand Worlds, The Heart of Battle, Legion of the Lost, A Thing of Guile, The Neverwhen, The Shadow Vortex, The Eternity Cage, Eye of Harmony, Pretty Lies, The Lady of Obsidian, The Enigma Dimension (2015-17) — Cardinal Ollistra
  • Classic Doctors, New Monsters: "Night of the Vashta Nerada" (2017) — Cardinal Ollistra
  • The Eighth Doctor: The Time War: 5 releases^{show list} Echoes Of War, The Conscripts, One Life, In the Garden of Death, Jonah (2017-18) — Cardinal Ollistra
• Blake's 7:
  • Big Finish: The Liberator Chronicles: 5 releases^{show list} Volumes 2, 4, 5, 8 & 10 (2012-14) — Servalan
  • Big Finish: The Classic Adventures : 6 releases^{show list} "Warship", "The Spoils Of War", "The Way Ahead", "Crossfire": Parts 1, 2 & 3 (2013-18) — Servalan

Tropes associated with her work include:

• Boyish Short Hair: Her trademark; she sported it not only as Servalan but in many of her acting roles, and in real life as well.
• Breakout Villain: Servalan was originally only intended to appear in one episode of Blake's 7, but Pearce's performance was so popular with the production team and audience that she became the Big Bad of all four seasons of the show.

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