Sheila Jackson

Jackson studied on the Theatre Design course at the Central School in the 1940s. She was asked to teach on the course by Jeannetta Cochrane in the 1950s and taught drawing, including the 'presenation' class at which students were taught how to draw, present and mount their work. She spent much of her career designing costumes for television, particularly for the companies Rediffusion and LWT. Work for Rediffusion included The Cherry Orchard with John Gielgud, Peggy Ashcroft and Dorothy Tutin; Romeo and Juliet with Jane Asher and the Wicked Women Series with Anna Massey, Billie Whitelaw and Mona Washbourne. Her work for LWT included the characters for the sixty episodes Upstairs Downstairs. Since her retirement Jackson has produced prints and drawings of flowers and animals and these were exhibited in a show to celebrate her eightieth birthday in 2000.