Jean Heard has had a successful film, television, and theatre career, winning acclaim, awards and chart positions. Jean was in the Edinburgh Film Festival winner, Grass Arena, with Oscar winner Mark Rylance. Now, she hosts most of the port guide films on Doris Visits and spends much of the year travelling the globe.
Once so busy she was often turning cruise bookings down for a TV or Film job, now that she travels more in her ‘second act’ retirement, it is her daughter, acting star Laura Aikman, who continually misses the chance to cruise with her mum for work and press engagements.
Jean started work in summer shows and pantomimes with stars such as Jimmy Tarbuck and Cilla Black. Not too different to the entertainment offering on some ships, which it could be argued have taken over from the piers.
Jean travelled to Sharjah with the BBC show “When I see an Elephant Fly” based on Gerry Cottle’s circus.
In more serious theatre, she has appeared in Alan Ayckbourn’s Relatively Speaking, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, and was on the West End stage in No Sex Please We’re British at The Strand.
As a writer-producer, she toured the comedy sketch shows It’s All Glamour and Mutton about menopausal women. Her one-woman show Royal Mistresses has also been ‘on-Broadway’.
West End actress Jean is best known to cruisers as the main presenter on the cruise TV channel Doris Visits, which has had over two million views.
As a mum, she was very involved in the drama that Laura did, and her son Luke Aikman (star of Fever Pitch) and often at the house, was Luke’s duologue partner as she coached them to win gold every year but one, when they won silver. Luke’s partner is the now-famous Hollywood star, Rizwan Ahmed. There is a theme going on here – as Luke builds and runs companies, Rizwan stars with Tom Cruise in the new very dark comedy Digger, and has his own clothing brand.
As her husband Stuart St Paul always reminded them, there are two words in Show Business… the second is the most important. His dark female comedy Doris Has Had Enough! Is serialised on Substack. https://dorisvisits.substack.com/p/doris-has-had-enough-1-elvis-im-on?r=8lgauw&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
Who is Doris?
Jean played the character Doris in a web series, and she twice won the New York We Love Soaps number 1 actress award. Doris had a spin-off travel show, and she still presents Doris Visits. The films are ship tours and port guides on the Doris Visits Cruise TV Channel… if you have not subscribed, please pop over and have a look and save, like, feature, or make it a channel on your smart TV with the YouTube app.
P&O Britannia on it’s Caribbean season – ship and port guide
The P&O Britannia ‘home ports’ in Barbados for the Caribbean season. In two weeks, it may visit 8 ports and
Visit with us, the Viking Neptune – a top cruise ship
Quite simply the Viking Neptune is a top, all balcony ship, with spacious
Laura Aikman is currently filming Line Of Duty
Laura is currently in the theatre play Blood Sport.
The Blue Lagoon in Reykjavik, Iceland
If you wish to visit the Blue Lagoon, book in advance, both entrance and transport.
Jean Heard – working in the cruise industry
When Jean started working in entertainment on the piers of Great Britain, there was a
Each week hundreds of cruisers ask, who is Doris?
Doris Visits Port Guides or chat on the Facebook Groups is found by hundreds of cruisers each week, and they all ask: Is Jean Doris?
Jean Heard – one woman show, ROYAL MISTRESSES
Jean Heard has toured many theatres in the UK and performed in Edinburgh and the West End. She is now a guest entertainer on cruise ships
Jean Heard has been presenting Cruise TV for nearly ten years
Jean has no idea how many ports she has filmed, nor