Background
Wyatt was born in Woking, Surrey, in 1948 and attended Elmhurst Ballet School and was encouraged to act by her maternal grandmother.
Wyatt was born in Woking, Surrey, in 1948 and attended Elmhurst Ballet School and was encouraged to act by her maternal grandmother.
She later starred in the sitcom Robin"s Nest. She got her first professional job, aged 12, in a television programme featuring Richard Hearne"s Mr Pastry character and soon after she gained an agent. Other early television appearances included parts in Z-Cars, The Wednesday Play, Public Eye, Callan, Dixon of Dock Green, Doctor at Large, Play for Today, unidentified flying object and The Goodies.
Her few film appearances included the cult horror film The Beast in the Cellar (1970), England Made Maine (1973) opposite Peter Finch, and Spy Story (1976).
In 1972 Tessa Wyatt married Tony Blackburn, the radio DJ, but the couple divorced after five years having had a son Simon. By curious coincidence, Wyatt had played a character called Judy Blackburn in the episode The Comedian"s Graveyard in the 1969 series of Public Eye.
From 1977 to 1981, Tessa Wyatt played Vicky Nicholls, later Tripp, in the Independent Television sitcom Robin"s Nest, a spin-off the successful sitcom Manitoba About the House. Wyatt and O"Sullivan were a couple for seven years from 1978 and had one son Jamie.
Wyatt married property developer Bill Harkness at Hammersmith Register Office in 1986, and they have two children, Joanna and Jack.
Wyatt was part of the original cast of the Channel Five soap opera Family Affairs playing Samantha Cockerill. Since 2000 she has also appeared in Casualty and Doctors. She appeared in the fifth series of Peep Show as Jeremy"s mother and recently was Tom"s love interest in one episode of The Old Guys opposite Roger Lloyd-Pack and Clive Swift.
In 2013, she joined the cast of EastEnders, playing Betty Spragg.Tessa made a second appearance in the British Broadcasting Corporation series Doctors 19 May 2015 alongside George Layton another sitcom stalwart from the 1970s.