Jane Tucker is a British singer, songwriter and pianist. She is best known for being part of the musical trio Rod, Jane and Freddy. Jane was born into a family with an artistic background. Her grandmother was an opera singer, her mother Jean a pianist, and her father was Rex Tucker, the drama director for the BBC. She first started to play the piano when she was three, having been given lessons by her mother. Jane's first ambition was to follow in her mother's footsteps and become a concert pianist, but as a teenager she decided she would rather be an actress. This ambition is what led her to be trained at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where she continued her piano and singing whilst embarking on a full-time drama course. After graduating, she followed the classic route of repertory theatre, touring, TV, and radio, where she met and eventually married Rod Burton. They divorced in 1979.In 1967, Jane was a hostess on the Associated-Rediffusiongame showExit! It's the Way-Out Show hosted by Ed Stewart.
In 1974, Jane and Rod auditioned for Rainbow, Thames Television's programme for pre-school children, and were teamed with Matthew Corbett to become the new musician/singers. Later Corbett would be replaced by Roger Walker, and then Freddy Marks, creating the trio's most famous incarnation: Rod, Jane and Freddy.
''Rod, Jane and Freddy''
Towards the end of 1980 the trio were approached by ITV to do their own show, plans went through and the Rod, Jane and Freddy series was broadcast for the first time its first episode on 15 January 1981. In 1985 Jane and fellow trio member Freddy Marks became a couple, and have continued to be together since. Rod, Jane and Freddy appeared in both their own show and Rainbow until 1991 when they left their position as musicians on Rainbow to focus solely on Rod, Jane and Freddy. In 1990 RJF took their show on the road and toured successfully for 6 years, playing every major town in the UK. In 1996 Jane, along with Rod and Freddy, won an award from The British Academy of Songwriters for outstanding contribution to the music business. Jane married Freddy in 2016.
Acting
Since leaving the Rod, Jane and Freddy tours Tucker has appeared in several pantomimes as Fairy Snowdrop in Snow White at the Queen's Theatre, Barnstaple in 2006, Fairy Rainbow in Jack and the Beanstalk at Newport's Riverfront in 2007, as Fairy Godmother in Cinderella at Truro's Hall for Cornwall in the winter of 2008/2009 and as the good fairy Azuriel in Sleeping Beauty at Crewe's Lyceum Theatre in the winter of 2009/2010, reprising the role the following winter at the Hexagon in Reading. Other theatre roles include starring as Beatrix Potter in the musical Jemima Puddleduck and Friends at the Unicorn Theatre in London. Tucker has made several TV appearances including as Anne Hathaway in Shakespeare's England, and has done voiceovers for Disneyland and BBC Schools. Jane recently appeared in panto, playing the Good Fairy Azuriel in Sleeping Beauty at The Hexagon in Reading in the winter of 2010/2011. In 2009, she appeared on The Justin Lee Collins Show, as a blast from the past. In 2010 she shot a cameo role for an independent feature filmShadows of a Stranger, due for release in 2014.
Composing
Jane has written many songs and musical pieces for stage shows and pantomimes and a complete score for the musical 'Wizadora'. In 2005 Jane finished writing and composing a ballet based on the Chinese Horoscope. A project that spanned 5 years.
