It is with great sadness that we report the death of the actress Elisabeth Sladen - forever known to us as the Doctor's best friend, Sarah Jane Smith.

Born in Liverpool in February 1946, Elisabeth Sladen took an interest in acting from an early age; she joined the Liverpool Playhouse repertory company as assistant stage manager after drama school, where she would meet her future husband Brian Miller. After a stint touring the country in repertory, she settled in Manchester, during which she had her breakthrough television role in 1970, appearing as Anita Reynolds in Coronation Street. More small roles were to follow in popular shows like Doomwatch, Z Cars and Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em.

Then in 1973 came what would be her defining role as she was cast as the replacement companion for third Doctor Jon Pertwee. Following in the footsteps of popular companion Jo Grant played by Katy Manning, Sladen was to hit the ground running as investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith in her debut story The Time Warrior, and over the next three years would see her popularity soar as she became part of what is arguably known as the "golden years" of Doctor Who alongside fourth Doctor Tom Baker, an era including the story frequently appearing top of fan polls, Genesis of the Daleks.

Despite choosing to leave the programme in 1976, with an emotional departure scene at the conclusion of the serial The Hand of Fear, Sladen later stated in interviews that although she had left Sarah Jane, "Sarah Jane never left me". Although she declined producer John Nathan-Turner's offer to come back as support for the Fourth Doctor's regeneration (being present at his own arrival at the end of this week's DVD release Planet of the Spiders), she did returned to the role for the 1981 pilot: having been described by the Doctor as his best friend, Sarah was form her second long-lasting partnership with his "second-best friend" in the titular K9 and Company.

Sladen was re-united with "her" Doctor, Jon Pertwee, in the 1983 20th anniversary celebration The Five Doctors, and again during the 1990s for the two radio stories The Paradise of Death and The Ghosts of N-Space, written and produced by the person who originally cast her, Barry Letts - the two would also be joined by another popular Doctor Who legend in the form of Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier.

Outside of Doctor Who, Elisabeth continued to work in theatre and television, often alongside her husband Brian; roles included Josie Hall in Take My Wife, a small role in the film Silver Dream Racer, and as Lady Flimnap in a production of Gulliver in Lilliput by her former producer Barry Letts, followed a few years later in his production of Alice in Wonderland as the Cheshire Cat. However, with the birth of her daughter Sadie in 1985, she was to focus more on her family.

However, Sarah would never be far from her life, with the actress continuing to be a popular guest at Doctor Who conventions, and also featuring in a series of audio adventures from Big Finish. Then, in 2005, a discussion with the revived Doctor Who's head writer and long-term fan of hers, Russell T Davies, led to a guest appearance in the second series adventure School Reunion, which re-united Sarah (and K9!) with the Doctor in his most recent incarnation (David Tennant) - her appearance proved instrumental in cementing the connection between the 20th and 21st Century productions in a way that the Daleks couldn't!

The character, and Sladen's performance, proved to be as popular as ever, if not more so, and led to her own starring role in spin-off series, The Sarah Jane Adventures; the CBBC series continued on from her re-introduction in Doctor Who as an independent investigator of alien activity - now joined by her young own assistants as well as her faithful K9 - and winning a whole new legion of fans, both young and old. It is also a testament to the strength of the show that it has been graced by the appearance of the both the Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney), and the Doctor himself in both his Tenth incarnation in The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith (and David Tennant's final performance as the Doctor), and Eleventh in the form of Matt Smith in Death of the Doctor - where Sladen was also to come 'full circle' by performing with the actress she 'replaced' way back in 1973, Katy Manning, aka Jo Jones né Grant.

The series itself has gone on to win awards, including the Royal Television Society award for Children's Drama last month.

At the time of her death there are still three stories of The Sarah Jane Adventures to be broadcast on television, and her autobiography, Who's That Girl is due out later in the year.


Elisabeth Sladen died in the morning of 19th April, having been battling with cancer for some time. She is survived by her husband Brian Miller, and daughter Sadie.


Media Obituaries: Toby Hadoke for The Guardian; Scott Matthewman for The Stage.

Doctor Who remains at 6pm for the second episode in the new series, Day Of The Moon, to be broadcast on 30th April.

The programme is once more sandwiched between Don't Scare the Hare, a game show and So You Think You Can Dance a dance competition.

ITV1 has People Do the Funniest Things wth Channel 4 showing Come Dine with Me Down Under and Channel Five showing the 1989 film The Abyss.

The BBC will be hoping the early start for Doctor Who can draw viewers into its Saturday night schedule, which has been performing poorly in the last couple of weeks. The highest rating BBC One show last Saturday was Casualty with an overnight figure of 4.2 million viewers. So You think You Can Dance had just 3.6 million watching. The show which occupied Doctor Who's slot was Eurovision: Your Country Needs Blue which had 2.0 mllion viewers. ITV1 has the highest rated show last Saturday with Britain's Got Talent being watched by 10.4 million.

Actor John de Lancie has been confirmed as a member of the cast of Torchwood: Miracle Day.

The actor is best known for his portrayal of Q, a recurring character in the Star Trek franchise. He created the role for the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and was so successful that he had regular appearances in the series throughout its run as well as episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager.

He has also appeared in numerous television shows including: The Six Million Dollar Man, Hill Street Blues, The Thorn Birds, Nero Wolfe, The West Wing, Sports Night, Judging Amy, The New Twilight Zone, The Closer, Legend, L.A. Law, MacGyver, Picket Fences, Civil Wars, The Practice, Charmed, Murder, She Wrote, Stargate SG-1, Battlestar Galactica (1978), Emergency!, and Touched by an Angel.

de Lancie's casting in Torchwood was revealed in a tweet by one of the series' authors, Jane Espenson.

The series is currently in production for transmission worldwide this summer.

Executive Producer Steven Moffat will be a guest on Graham Norton's Radio 2 show next Saturday, 23rd April, just a few hours before the launch of the new series.

The show will have a clip from the first episode. The producers are asking for emails for Norton to put to Moffat during the programme, which can be sent to graham.norton@bbc.co.uk.

Radio 2 is available worldwide on the BBC iPlayer. Moffat will be on the show around 1130 UK Time.

With just over a week until the new series of Doctor Who launches on BBC One, BBC America and SPACE, the BBC have released a new trailer.


The series premiers on BBC One next Saturday at 6pm

2|Entertain's Classic Doctor Who have released a "First Look" video on their YouTube channel to promote the forthcoming release of the third Doctor's final story, Planet of the Spiders.

2|Entertain have announced a competition via Twitter for fans to contribute on commentaries for the final Seventh Doctor adventures to be released on DVD, Dragonfire, The Happiness Patrol and The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.

In order to enter, fans should record and submit a question to the Classic Doctor Who Soundcloud group, and the favourites chosen will be featured as recorded on the related commentary.

Full entry details are on our competitions page.

The BBC has released press details for the second episode in the new series, Day Of The Moon, scheduled for transmission on BBC One on Saturday 30th April.

The Episode is currently pencilled in sometime between 6pm and 7pm, but timings won't be confirmed until next week.

As part of publicity for the new series, the BBC have released interviews with Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, discussing what viewers might expect from the upcoming episodes.

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Two preview clips from the series opener, The Impossible Astronaut have also been released:

 

BBC Worldwide Canada has announced a deal with SPACE which will see Torchwood: Miracle Day come to the channel this summer along with a raft of other sci-fi titles such as Bedlam, Primeval and Outcasts.

Hilary Read, COO, BBC Worldwide Canada said:
Joanna Webb, Senior Vice-President, Programming, Bell Media said
SPACE previously aired series Two and Three of Torchwood. Series One was first seen in Canada on CBC.