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Jan Francis (born 5 August 1947 in London) is an English actress. Jan Francis was born at the former Charing Cross Hospital near Trafalgar Square in London. She was the eldest child of Frank (a clerical officer with the Agricultural Society) and Marjorie Francis, an employment agent. She was raised in Streatham and was educated at the Lady Eldridge Grammar School. After training as a dancer at the Royal Ballet Senior School (from which she graduated in 1965), Francis performed with the Royal Ballet Touring Company in Britain, Europe and the United States. She left the Royal Ballet in September 1969 to pursue an acting career. She made the transfer to becoming an actress through choreography and performed with the Cheltenham Repertory Company between 1969 and 1970. She first appeared on television in 1971, before landing BBC television drama roles roles including Kschessinska in Fall of Eagles and Lisa Colbert in Secret Army. She played the part of Susie Dean in Alan Plater`s adaptation of the J.B. Priestley novel The Good Companions which was produced by Yorkshire Television in 1980. In 1979 she starred in Dracula as Mina Van Helsing, opposite Sir Laurence Olivier as Abraham Van Helsing.

As a result, writer John Sullivan met her and later created her most famous part as Penny Warrender in the 1980s BBC sitcom Just Good Friends. She later played Nick`s "old enough to be his mother" girlfriend in the sitcom My Family, and co-starred with Dennis Waterman as Sally Hardcastle in the 1989-1992 ITV drama series Stay Lucky. During the late 80`s - early 90`s she starred in the Lloyds Bank television commercials alongside Nigel Havers. In 2006, she guest starred in ITV1 prison drama Bad Girls as interior designer, Catherine Earlham. She was sent to Larkhall on remand for embezzelment and played a key role in the exit storyline for fellow inmate, Darlene Cake (played by Antonia Okonma). She is also a regular performer (and part of the original cast) of the long-running touring play Seven Deadly Sins Four Deadly Sinners produced by Marc Sinden. In 2009 she appeared as Julia in the second series of "Mistresses" on BBC1. She married the actor-writer Martin Thurley in Newton Abbott on 1st August 1977. They have two daughters Josephine (born 1982) and Anna (born 1988) and reside in Woodchurch, Kent.

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