Elisabeth Sladen

Infobox actor
name = Elisabeth Sladen


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birthname = Elisabeth Sladen
birthdate = birth date and age|1948|2|1
birthplace = Liverpool, England, UK
is currently alive
restingplace = Not yet
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othername = Elizabeth Sladen
occupation = Actress, Presenter, Writer
yearsactive = 1965-present
spouse = Brian Miller (1968-present)
partner =
children = 1
parents =
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Elisabeth Sladen (born 1 February 1948, Liverpool) is an English actress best known for her role as Sarah Jane Smith in the British television series "Doctor Who".

She appeared as a regular on "Doctor Who" with both Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, and has reprised the role many times. Sladen has been married since 1968 to actor Brian Miller. Their daughter, Sadie Miller, appeared with her in the range of audio plays by Big Finish Productions.

Early career

An only child, Sladen developed an interest in performing at an early age, beginning dance lessons when she was five and dancing in one production with the Royal Ballet. She eventually turned to acting, and after finishing grammar school, attended drama school for two years.

Following this, she began work at the Liverpool Playhouse repertory company as an assistant stage manager. Her first stage appearance was as a corpse. However, she was scolded for giggling on stage, thanks to a young actor, Brian Miller, whispering the words, "Respiration nil, Aston Villa two" in her ear while he was playing the doctor. Sladen was so good as an assistant stage manager that she did not get many acting roles, a problem she solved by deliberately making mistakes on several occasions. This got her told off again, but she started to get more on-stage roles.

Sladen eventually moved into weekly repertory work, traveling around to various locations in England. Sladen and Miller, now married, moved to Manchester, spending three years there. She appeared in numerous roles, most notably as Desdemona in "Othello", her first appearance as a leading lady. She also got the odd part on Leeds Radio and Granada Television, eventually appearing as a barmaid in six episodes of the long-running soap opera "Coronation Street". Sladen made her first, uncredited, screen appearance in 1964 in the film "Ferry Cross the Mersey" as an extra.

In 1972, Miller was appearing in a play that moved down to London, and they had to move along with it. Sladen found city life a bit of an adjustment, but eventually adapted. Her first television role in London was as a terrorist in an episode of "Doomwatch". This was followed by guest roles in "Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em" and "Z-Cars".

arah Jane Smith

In 1973, Doctor Who actress Katy Manning, who was playing the Third Doctor's assistant Jo Grant opposite Jon Pertwee, was leaving the series. Producer Barry Letts was growing increasingly desperate in his search for a replacement when "Z-Cars" producer Ron Craddock gave Sladen an enthusiastic recommendation.

Sladen arrived at the audition not knowing it was for the new companion role and was amazed at Letts's thoroughness. She was introduced to Pertwee, whom she found intimidating at the time. As she chatted with Letts and Pertwee, each time she turned to look at one of them the other would signal a thumbs-up. [Barry Letts, commentary to DVD 'The Time Warrior'] She was offered and accepted the part of investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith.

She stayed on "Doctor Who" for three and a half seasons, alongside Pertwee as the Third Doctor and Tom Baker as the Fourth, receiving both popular and critical acclaim for her role as Sarah Jane. When she left the series, in the 1976 serial "The Hand of Fear", it made front page news Fact|date=August 2008, where previously only a change of Doctors had received such attention.

Sladen has returned to the character of Sarah Jane Smith on numerous occasions. In 1981, new "Doctor Who" producer John Nathan-Turner asked her to return to the series to ease the transition between Tom Baker and new Doctor Peter Davison. She declined but accepted his second offer of doing a pilot for a spin-off series called "K-9 and Company", co-starring K-9, the popular robot dog from "Doctor Who". However, the pilot was not picked up for a series. Two years later Sladen appeared in the 20th anniversary special "The Five Doctors".

She reprised the role in the 1993 Children in Need special "Dimensions in Time", and in the 1995 independently produced video "Downtime" alongside former co-star Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and Deborah Watling as Victoria Waterfield. This was her last on-screen appearance as Sarah Jane Smith for some time.

Sladen played Sarah Jane in several audio plays. Two of them were produced for BBC Radio, "The Paradise of Death" (Radio 5, 1993), and "The Ghosts of N-Space" (Radio 2, 1996), together with Jon Pertwee and Nicholas Courtney. Big Finish Productions has also produced two series of "" audio adventures set in the present day, released in 2002 and 2006. Her daughter Sadie has also appeared in the audios.

Following the successful revival of "Doctor Who" in 2005 Sladen guest starred as Sarah Jane in "School Reunion", an episode of the 2006 series, along with John Leeson, who returned as the voice of the robot dog K-9, and David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor. In the lead-up to the broadcast of "School Reunion", Sladen was quoted in "The Daily Mirror" being somewhat critical of the characterisation of Sarah Jane in the original programme: "Sarah Jane used to be a bit of a cardboard cut-out. Each week it used to be, 'Yes Doctor, no Doctor', and you had to flesh your character out in your mind — because if you didn't, no one else would." She spoke more favourably of the characterisation in the new series. [cite news
first=Cameron
last=Robertson
url=http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16958042%26method=full%26siteid=94762%26headline=exclusive%2d%2ddr%2dwho%2ds%2d%2dcut%2dout%2d%2dgirl%2dback-name_page.html
title=Dr Who's 'cut-out' girl back
publisher=The Daily Mirror
date=2006-04-18
accessdate=2006-04-21 ]

Following her successful appearance in the series, Sladen now stars in "The Sarah Jane Adventures", a "Doctor Who" spin-off focusing on Sarah Jane, produced by BBC Wales for CBBC and created by Russell T Davies. A 60-minute special aired on New Year's Day 2007, with a 10-episode series commencing broadcast in September 2007. The programme was nominated for a prestigious Royal Television Society award [cite web
url=http://www.rts.org.uk/Information_page_+_3_pic_det.asp?sec_id=503&id=34996
title= Programme Awards 2007: Winners
publisher=Royal Television Society website
date=2008-02-06
accessdate=2008-03-20 ] and has been recommissioned for a second 12-episode series for broadcast in 2008. [cite web
url=http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/cult/a88755/sarah-jane-gets-second-season.html
title= 'Sarah Jane' gets second season
publisher=Digital Spy
date=2008-03-19
accessdate=2008-03-20 ]

Sladen also read two original audio stories for "The Sarah Jane Adventures" [ [http://www.southport.tv/page.php?id=Elisabeth-Sladen Elisabeth Sladen Interview] ] , which were released in November 2007 on CD: "The Glittering Storm" by Stephen Cole and "The Thirteenth Stone" by Justin Richards. This was the first time that BBC Audiobooks have commissioned new content for exclusive release on audio. [cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/news/cult/news/drwho/2007/10/01/49352.shtml |title=The Sarah Jane Audios |accessdate = 2007-10-02 |work=BBC "Doctor Who" website ] .

Sladen appeared in the final two episodes of "Doctor Who"’s 2008 series. [cite web
url=http://www.sfx.co.uk/page/sfx?entry=sarah_jane_the_return_again
title=Sarah Jane – The Return. UPDATED!
publisher=SFX
date=2008-01-25
accessdate=2008-03-20 ]

Other work

Post-"Doctor Who" Sladen returned to Liverpool with her husband and did a series of plays. Notable appearances following that include a two-year stint as a presenter for the children's programme "Stepping Stones", a role as a stand-up comic's spouse in "Take My Wife", and a small part in the movie "Silver Dream Racer" as a bank secretary in 1980, only her second motion picture appearance to date.

In 1981, former "Doctor Who" producer Barry Letts cast her as the female lead in the BBC Classics production of "Gulliver in Lilliput".

She continued to appear in various advertisements and in another Letts production, "Alice in Wonderland" (playing the Dormouse), as well as attending conventions in the United States. After the birth of her daughter Sadie Miller in 1985, Sladen went into semi-retirement, placing her family first, but still finding time for the occasional television appearance. She played Dr Pat Hewer in "Peak Practice", her last television appearance until the 2006 "Doctor Who" episode "School Reunion". She has since starred in her own CBBC series "The Sarah Jane Adventures", a spin-off from Doctor Who, and appeared again in the Doctor Who season 4 finale "The Stolen Earth" and "Journey's End".

Sladen also appeared in a "Bernice Summerfield" audio drama, Kate Orman's "Walking to Babylon".

References

External links

* [http://www.liverpoolreporter.com/elisabeth-sladen/ Online TV Interview on Liverpool Reporter hosted by Jonathan Thompson with Elisabeth Sladen in 2006]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/kids/sarah_jane_adventures.shtml BBC Norfolk webTV: Elisabeth Sladen previews the Sarah Jane Adventures]
*imdb name|id=0805207|name=Elisabeth Sladen
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/content/articles/2006/10/30/doctor_who_elisabeth_sladen_oct06_feature.shtml BBC Norfolk webTV: Lis Sladen reflects on School Reunion - October 2006]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/content/articles/2006/04/19/film_doctor_who_lis_sladen_interview_feature.shtml BBC Norfolk webTV: Elisabeth Sladen interview from April 2006]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4714061.stm BBC confirm return of Sarah Jane Smith]
* [http://www.bbcworldwide.com/spokenword/interviews/lissladen.htm Interview from 2001]
* [http://denofgeek.com/television/6586/the_den_of_geek_interview_elisabeth_sladen.html Den of Geek interview with Elisabeth Sladen]

Persondata
NAME=Sladen, Elisabeth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Actress
DATE OF BIRTH=February 1, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH=Liverpool, England