Carolyn Jane Onslow How (born 21 December 1950) is an English actress with a range of television, film, and stage credits. She is best known for her role as Jan Hammond, the mistress of Den Watts in EastEnders. She appeared in the programme regularly from 1986 to 1987 and also made brief return appearances in 2002 and 2003, the latter leading up to Den's return to the show.
Other credits include Doctor Who story Planet of the Daleks (1973), The Spoils of War (1980-1981), A.D. (1985), Don't Wait Up (1983-1990), Charles and Diana: Unhappily Ever After (1992), AKA (2002), A Good Woman (2004), The Best Man (2005), Miss Potter (2006), 1st Night (2010), and Anatomy of a Scandal (2022).
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Early life
How was born in 1950, the youngest of three children of Major Robert Boothby How, an officer in the Black Watch, and his wife Virginia Ruth Primrose Hughes-Onslow, the only daughter of Oliver Hughes-Onslow, a barrister. Her parents divorced in 1953. After training at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, where she won the Rodney Millington Award, she spent several years in provincial theatre.
Career
How's first screen credit came in 1973, in the Doctor Who story Planet of the Daleks. Other credits include two series of The Spoils of War (1980-1981), War and Remembrance, A.D. (1985), Anglo-Saxon Attitudes (1992), The Cazalet Chronicles, Zoya, playing another famous mistress, Camilla Parker Bowles, in the TV movie Charles and Diana: Unhappily Ever After (1992). How has also appeared in The Citadel, Midsomer Murders, Judge John Deed, Byron, Bad Girls, Love Soup, Armadillo, Agatha Christie's Poirot, Daniel Deronda, and as Helen alongside Nigel Havers in four series of the sitcom Don't Wait Up (1983-1990),, Love in a Cold Climate (2001), and Anatomy of a Scandal (2022).
