English actress, daughter of Lord Bangor (Edward Ward) and his writer wife, Marjorie Banks.

She always wanted to act, paint and draw, and so joined the Central School of Speech and Drama in 1967. When she left in 1970, it was straight into a part in the Hammer film Vampire Circus (1972). Following this she worked extensively on stage, in films - including England Made Me (1973), Rosebud (1975) and The Prince and the Pauper (1977) - and on television.

In 1979 she was chosen to play Romana in Doctor Who when the original actress, Mary Tamm, left after one season. She quit Doctor Who in 1980, and in December of that year married Tom Baker, although the marriage only lasted 16 months.

In 1992 she married eminent biologist Dr. Richard Dawkins, and gave up acting to concentrate on writing and on her family.