Star of iconic British sci-fi TV series reveals why she doesn't regret leaving early

Blake's 7 legend Sally Knyvette has opened up about why she doesn't regret leaving the sci-fi show early.

The iconic series, which is set to be rebooted by director Peter Hoar, ran from 1978 to 1982, with Knyvette, who played Jenna Stannis, exiting after the second season, in 1979.

She's been open about being disappointed about how her character ended up being written, describing her as going from "intergalactic space pirate" to "dolly bird".

Speaking exclusively to Radio Times about whether she's ever regretted leaving the show, Knyvette said: "No. I was young, I was unformed. The BBC, at that time, was a difficult place for young girls, if you looked a certain way.

"I needed to develop my own backbone, my own voice, and going to university helped me do that. It gave me confidence. I didn't have that inner confidence and just going away and trying to work on who I was and developing my understanding of literature and particularly Shakespeare, which is my big love, it all has held me in fantastic stead.

"I've become a teacher, a director, I do voiceovers - it's broadened everything. I did get offered a series when I first arrived at university, with Patrick Stewart, called Maybury, and I remember my agent at the time was furious that I turned it down.

"But I don't regret it. I think it was very fundamental to my own particular growth and I've remained close to the people I was really close to in the show. I love it more now than I did then - so no, I don't regret leaving. It was the right time."

With a reboot of the series now in development, Knyvette has also said she'd love to return - or at least to be involved.

"Of course I would," she told us. "I sort of gaily walked away from it in the '70s and went off to university and thought I'd never think about it again. And bizarrely, it's just followed me all my life, and now I'm deeply fond of it."

As for whether Jenna could come back? Her ending was left rather ambiguous, with Knyvette insisting: "I’m alive! And anyway, if I wasn't, I could be cloned."

She added: "We've taken it on in in the Big Finish audios, she's very much alive and kicking. And for me, it's a wonderful full circle, because I did feel as though I was hanging on by my fingernails in those days, and I was very unformed as an actor, and I was playing the glam part, but I wanted to be so much more.

"Now, I know I could bring so much more to it."

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