Jackie first met the Doctor after the department store at which Rose worked was destroyed. When the Doctor arrived at the flat Jackie and Rose share, Jackie attempted to flirt with the Doctor, to little avail. This first encounter set the stage for a sometimes anatgonistic relationship between the two. During the final phase of the Auton invasion, several Autons attacked Jackie, but her life was spared when Rose and the Doctor managed to destroy the physical form of the Nestene Consciousness.

Jackie appeared briefly in The End of the World, when the Doctor enabled Rose's mobile phone to call Jackie from five billion years in the future. From Jackie's point of view, this phone call took place before the events of Rose.

When Rose left with the Doctor in the TARDIS, she intended to be back within hours. However, when Rose returned to London in Aliens of London, she discovered that twelve whole months had elapsed. Out of her mind with worry, Jackie had in the intervening year organised a poster campaign to search for her missing daughter, and even accused Rose's boyfriend Mickey of murdering her. When Rose returned, Jackie was furious with the Doctor for taking her away. Jackie also could not understand why Rose would not tell her where she had been, but discovered the truth when she saw the TARDIS. She was also nearly killed by a Slitheen disguised as a policeman, and began to truly appreciate how dangerous Rose's new lifestyle was when the Doctor ended the Slitheen's plans by calling a missile strike down on 10 Downing Street where he and Rose were trapped at the time.

While Jackie appears flighty at times, she genuinely loves her daughter and is extremely concerned for her safety, particularly given the life the Doctor leads. Even though her attitude towards the Doctor has softened from hostility to grudging acceptance, she continues to worry about Rose and waits for her daughter's return.

A younger Jackie, also played by Coduri, appeared in Father's Day. Despite Rose's idyllic image of her parents' marriage, the relationship she saw when she travelled with the Doctor back to 1987 was stormy, and Jackie was threatening to divorce Pete. However, these fights were short-lived, and it was clear that both Jackie and Pete loved each other despite the arguments. After Pete's death, Jackie would tell Rose about her father, painting a picture of Pete as the ideal husband he was not.

The present-day Jackie made another appearance in the 2005 series finale, The Parting of the Ways. When the Doctor sent Rose back to her own time, Jackie was initially glad to have her daughter home again. However, she eventually helped Rose open the TARDIS console and return to help the Doctor. When she next appeared in The Christmas Invasion, her relationship with the Tenth Doctor was warmer than it was with his earlier incarnation: the Doctor was more open and friendly than the Ninth, and she seemed to trust him more.

Coduri has reportedly signed for five episodes of the 2006 series.