Jackie Queen


Jackie Queen
Series:	Life on Mars (UK) Ashes to Ashes
Actor:	Ruth Millar

Jacqueline "Jackie" Queen was a Scottish journalist and reporter working for the Manchester Gazette in 1973. She was a friend of DI Sam Tyler and a "frenemy" of DCI Gene Hunt.

Biography[]

Working for the Manchester Gazette[]

While working for the local newspaper, Queen wrote an article about Gene Hunt, who, during a robbery of a post office, shot a young robber in the back because he believed he was running towards a crowd with a gun. Instead, the young man was carrying a "wooden stick". The article that Jackie wrote gave Hunt a bad reputation for a short period of time. (LOM Series 1: Episode 6).

Hostage Crisis at the Manchester Gazette Building[]

In 1973, Jackie and three other journalists were held hostage at gunpoint by Reg Cole in the Manchester Gazette building, who forced Jackie to write up a story about Cole's actions so the public would recognise him for the hard work he did. When DI Sam Tyler, DCI Gene Hunt, DC Chris Skelton, and DS Ray Carling attempted to deal with the situation, Gene bypassed Sam's attempts at negotiation and turned up the heat in the building hoping to lure Cole to a window. Cole held Jackie at gun point demanding the heat be turned off. Tyler, followed by Hunt, were both later captured by Cole. While attempting to escape, the hostages and the two police officers came to a dead end, and were taken hostage again. After the hostage-taking, Jackie resumed her post as a journalist and reported of the hostage situation for the evening Gazette, praising the police's handling of the situation (LOM Series 1: Episode 6).

After the hostage crisis[]

When Sam Tyler decided to stay in 1973 with his colleagues, he eventually became a friend of Jackie. When Sam Tyler died in 1980, Jackie wrote his obituary for the Manchester Gazette, saying he was "the most loved man she ever met" (A2A' Series 2: Episode 4). In Ashes to Ashes series 2, episode 4, Jackie turned up again at Fenchurch East CID unannounced, wearing Gene's old camel coat — which he had been looking for — and apparently pregnant with his baby, much to the shock of him and the rest of the team. Jackie claimed that he'd left the coat at her flat. This was later proved to be untrue; she had been teasing him all along and said that she wouldn't sleep with Gene if he was the last man on the planet. The main reason she had come up to London was because her niece, Rachel Lessing, had run away from home. The team eventually tracked down Rachel, but she ran away again after arguing with Jackie and being refused the opportunity to go in as bait in order to catch Ralph Jarvis, who was seemingly responsible for the death of several young girls. Jarvis walked free, but not before he is shot by Charlie Mackintosh, who later shoots himself where Jackie and Rachel are both present along with the rest of the team. Jackie and Rachel then go back up to Manchester, where Jackie presumably continues to write for the Manchester Gazette. She gives Gene back his camel coat, but he tells her to keep it in order to keep the baby warm. She comments that it smells of whisky, to which Hunt tells her to add it to the dry cleaners. Jackie asks Alex Drake if she's sure there's nothing going on between her and Hunt, to which Drake replies "I'm positive.".