Jane had amateur acting experience before joining The Archers, a Monday to Friday radio serial, as Monica Downs, then moved to repertory theatre at Sheffield and York. She then did various tours and television work before getting a regular role as Nurse Ford in the television serial, Emergency Ward 10; then as Jill Harvey, the daughter of the owner of the motel, in Crossroads. She was educated at Sutton Coldfield Grammar School and the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama. She was first married to television director Tim Jones then to chartered surveyor David Dunger by whom she had a daughter Sorrel and a son Harry