"Most women don't have to go through what I've gone through - they've been women from birth. Most women don't have to sell themselves to create themselves."

Biography

This short bio has been compiled from various interviews, as well as the series itself. I've tried just to sum up just facts and dates in a timeline without any comments. For more info on her childhood, see the interviews.

22 March 1970: Jason Alexander McAuliffe was born in Hackney, east London, as the third son in the family.

1972: Jason's youngest brother is born.

1975: Jason's parents abandons their children, and he and his next oldest brother are put in a children's home. His youngest brother is fostered elsewhere.

Ca 1977?: Jason and his older brother are relocated to a foster family in Hertfordshire. He doesn't get along with his father, a secondary school principal, but has a warmer relationship with her foster mother, a children's author.

Ca 1977?: Jason attends High Wych Primary school.

1978-9: Jason starts noticing the difference between boys and girls, and feels he doesn't quite fit into the role of a boy.

1979: Jason starts to play piano and violin, at first reluctantly, but learns to enjoy it.

198?: Jason begins secondary school (Harlow's Mark Hall School?), and is regularly beaten up by other boys for being different.

1987: Jason leaves home. Goes to Harlow College to do A-levels in English, history and geography, but doesn't complete them.

1990: Jason finally gets appointment at gender identity clinic, and spends three years on the waiting list.

1993: Jason starts living as a woman, and gradually finds life more bearable.

November 1995: Jason completes gender reassignment surgery, and becomes Jackie Ann. While the operation is free, she is not satisfied with her appearance and decides to get plastic surgery to finish the job.

1996: To afford her operations, whilst making a living, Jackie starts working as a prostitute in Seven Sisters. She moves to Bayswater and takes up business in Sussex Gardens. She is arrested and fined several times.

1996?: Jackie has breast augmentation surgery.

Early 1998?: Jackie decides to give up prostitution. Lion TV crew turns up at Jackie's hairdresser, looking for 'interesting people' to appear on a new docu-drama. Jackie joins, thinking it will give her motivation to quit.

Summer of 1998: £4,000 nose cosmetic surgery on nose and chin. She also has to save up funds for several weeks while she's not working.

Late summer 1998: Jackie gives up her Paddington flat that she's lived in for 16 months, and goes on a 2 week holiday in Xanti, Greece, followed by 2 weeks in Tenerife.

November 1998: Jackie finally gets out of prostitution, but has to sleep rough during the winter as she cannot afford a place to stay.

28 des 1998: First episode of Paddington Green is aired in the UK. She books a piano practice room and buys some sheet music.

January 1999: Traffic in Sussex Gardens shows a remarkable increase, and the Vice Squad starts registering licence plate numbers.

24 January 1999: Jackie is interviewed on The Heaven and Earth Show on BBC1.

Early 1999: Jackie moves into a hostel. "It's quite small, but I'm a bit of a hamster really, I don't need a lot of space".

Spring? 1999: Jackie is invited by Decca to record a album of piano music, and goes to Wales to practice. Studio recordings with orchestra follows. Album is released 4 months later.

9 June 1999: BBC shows first episode of second Paddington Green series, showing the results of Jackie's nose operation. Rumours of the record starts to leak out, which she denies in a Radio Times interview.

21 July 1999: Lion TV producer Jeremy Mills drops hint of Jackie's change of fortune in a BBC Internet chat.

???? 1999: Jackie is finally rehoused to a flat in West London.

1 Nov 1999: Forgotten Dreams album released.

9 Nov 1999: Paddington Green episodes of Jackie's album is finally shown on BBC1. Apparently the last episode of the second (third?) series. Two further series are scheduled for 2000.

26 June 2000: A 30-min special interview called Jackie's Story is shown on BBC1, where she talks about her childhood. Financially she seems not much better than before. "Everyone thinks i've got it made after being on tv, but i'm on the dole and broke ... Sometimes i'm tempted to be a hooker again."

8 Aug 2000: New series of Paddington Green begins on BBC1, with Todd Carty as narrator.

26 August 2000: Jackie participates in panel discussion named Genetically Modified Fame as part of the Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival.