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 | Sarah Jane Smith | Biographic Info |
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Sarah Jane Smith was a struggling young journalist who met The Third Doctor while impersonating her Aunt Lavinia, an eminent scientist, to get a story (The Time Warrior). After sharing his final adventures, Sarah was present as The Doctor regenerated into his fourth persona, and helped Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart convince him to stay on Earth to investigate a mysterious series of thefts of advanced technology (Robot). Along with Harry Sullivan, Sarah accompanied The Fourth Doctor on a number of adventures, including his mission to Skaro at the time of the creation of the Daleks, and his first meeting in several years with the Cybermen (Revenge of the Cybermen). With Harry safely back on Earth, Sarah and The Doctor continued their travels, meeting such foes as Sutekh (Pyramids of Mars), Morbius (The Brain of Morbius), and the Mandragora Helix (The Masque of Mandragora). Sarah had a cheeky, irreverent attitude to life, and her personality was perhaps more suited to The Fourth Doctor than that of any of his other companions. She was a proponent of women's rights (The Monster of Peladon, Robot, and others). She was also a crack shot (Pyramids of Mars), and a capable fighter (K-9 and Company). She suffered from vertigo (The Five Doctors; this may have been the result of an incident in which a sadistic guard nearly dropped her to her death from a missile gantry: Genesis of the Daleks). Sarah left The Doctor rather abruptly following his recall to Gallifrey (The Hand of Fear), but his presence continued to be felt in her life. In 1981, while working on a book at her Aunt Lavinia's home in Moreton Harwood, she found a crate containing a gift from The Doctor, a mobile computer called K-9 Mark III. With K-9's help, she uncovered the mystery of a coven which was operating in the area (K-9 and Company). In 1983, she was timescooped into the Death Zone on Gallifrey, where, to her surprise, she was reunited with The Third Doctor, and forced to play the deadly Game of Rassilon (The Five Doctors). | In the beginning:Elisabeth Claira Heath-Sladen was born Feb 1st 1948 in Liverpool England. Lis was not born into an acting family and in fact dance, not acting, was her first love. Originally she wanted to be a ballerina but she eventually found herself playing mouses (Specificly a mouse with the Royal Ballet) and other supporting characters and not in a tutu as she had dreamed. Deciding that dance wasn't her future Lis turned to acting and spent the last two years of her school education in a drama school. After leaving drama school Lis went to work at the Liverpool Playhouse (The oldest rep company in Britain). Not as an actress but as assistant stage manager aka the gopher. This is not unusual for a new kid joining a rep company. In 1966 Lis got her professional break playing a dead body at the theater. While not a role to remember for Lis, one of her fellow cast members was. This young man kept getting Lis in trouble by making her giggle while she was suppose to be dead by whispering to her silly things. The young man's name was Brian Miller (A talented actor as well) and they were married two years later. Like all young actresses starting out Lis acted as well as worked as the crew. Problem was Lis was a very good stage manager and found herself not getting cast in roles by directors who wanted her as their stage manager. Lis had no intention of becoming a profesional stage manager so she started making mistakes on purpose. Soon she was back in front of the scenery and not behind it. Lis and Brian trained in the classical British style of the rep theaters, most notably Manchester for three years (Where Lis did many small bits for Granada Television which was down the street from the theater. This included a week as a bar maid on Coronation Street and some bits on Leeds radio.) and Scarborough with Alan Ayckbourne. The Scarborough theater company of that time has since become known for the many future stars in the group including Richard Briarly, Paul Eddington and Penelope Keith. Without question this was wonderful training for Lis and Brian.
In 1970 Brian got a part in a play in London and so it was off to the bigtime for Lis. Lis was not a smash hit at first. In fact work was hard to come by. Brian seemed to be getting more work than Lis at this point. While getting bits and pieces like a small part in tv shows like Public Eye and the odd commercial Lis was hoping for a break. The most notable in these years was Lis playing a terrorist in an episode of Doomwatch (Unfortunately the episode is lost). This was Lis' first shot in London on a TV show. While auditioning for the show Lis was asked if she could drive. "Yes" she replied, leaving out the information that she had gotten her licence only the day before. It seems Lis scared half the crew to death as what they had her drive was a huge two ton truck. Lis to this day swears the sound man was literally shaking with fear as she drove. Another example of these early years of her career (Which is available on video) is Lis in Some Mother's Do 'ave 'em where she has a very funny scene as a fruit seller named Judi. The episode is called The Hospital and Lis got the part after originally auditioning for the lead role of Betty which went to actress Michele Dotrice. Lastly Lis did a short bit in two episodes of Z Cars. While just another job at the time it was the part that would give her her big break. While she did not become famous in these roles the word was getting around. This young lady had talent.
In 1973 Doctor Who was looking for a new female companion. Barry Letts was making a short list of actresses for the part and on this list was Lis after Barry had been told by the producer of Z Cars that he should take a look at her. Barry called Lis' agent and asked if she could come over the next day for an audition not saying it was for the part of a new companion. Lis having been filming a commercial that night did not get the message until late and with little sleep was off the next morning to audition. At first Lis thought it was for a part for one show, so she was surprised at how long the audition was taking. It seemed she kept reading over and over the same stuff. "Boy these folks are very thorough" Lis was thinking to herself. Finally Barry was convinced but to be sure he called up Jon Pertwee and asked him to come down and read with Lis. This is actually a very rare thing, a producer letting an actor have input on the casting of a new cast member. Still not sure what was happening Lis was very surprised to see Jon Pertwee walk in (With a girl on each arm. Jon was actually a shy man and the ladies were friends of his he asked to come along for moral support). Jon began to read the scene with Lis. Behind her back Barry was making thumbs up signs. Jon also made thumbs up signs to Barry when Lis had her back turned to him. At this point Lis knew something was going on but not what. It actually crossed her mind that they were being rude having seen glimses of them doing something out of the corner of her eye. She thought perhaps they were actually making fun of her. Finally Barry asked Lis if she was interested in playing the new companion. She said yes at once. When she called her agent he went "You shouldn't have said yes right away! You should have let me talk money first."
Lis was an instant hit on Doctor Who but it wasn't all smooth sailing from her point of view. It seemed most folks were more impressed with Lis than she was in herself. This was her big break and she didn't want to blow it. Coming into a show with a cast that had been together for years can make a person feel a bit of an outsider and Lis undoubtbly was nervous. Lis was at one point afraid of being fired. This was not helped by an incident during the filming of Death to the Daleks. In one scene Sarah Jane was suppose to be locked in a cell while the Doctor talked to some aliens. The problem was it was taking forever to set the shot up so Lis wandered off to get some tea. Time came to shoot the scene and Lis could not be found. The scene was shot without her and in the show you can see the obviously empty cell where Sarah was suppose to be. Lis came back to the set for the scene only to her horror to find they had filmed without her. About ten years ago I was fortunate enough to meet Jon Pertwee and asked him about that. Jon told me it really wasn't such a big deal but Lis was very upset over it and told Jon (This is from his memory) at one point she thought she might be fired. Jon told Lis 'Over my dead body. Your not going to be fired". Jon Pertwee was as wonderful a person as he was an actor. Jon did a great deal to make Lis feel comfortable and welcome on the show.
One other notable incident was a slight accident filming Monster of Peladon. Lis, wanting to show how brave she was, agreed to do a high fall of 18 feet for one scene (The final shot looks about 4 feet). This was the scene where Sarah and The Doctor are thrown into the pit with Aggedor. Lis landed wrong and injured her hip. It was not serious but this was the first of two accidents Lis had on the set of Doctor Who. The second one almost cost Lis her life.
Lis' second season was the beginning of the Tom Baker area of Doctor Who and it started of well with Robot. Not the best Doctor Who show, but Lis got to do a bit more in the show due to Letts wanting an easy first show for Tom. Lis starts to come into her own in this season with the character of Sarah Jane showing more and more personality and charm. No more just plain women's libber. Lis truely starts making the character her own. It was during the filming of this season that Lis had what is now a very famous accident. The accident happened during the filming of Revenge of the Cybermen at a place called Wookies Hole which is a system of caves in England where part of the episode was filmed. In this cave is a rock called the Witch of Wooky that resembles a witch. This rock is said to give bad luck to those who make fun of it. The stage hands, deciding to have a little fun, dressed this rock up with Tom Baker's scarf and hat. Later that day one of the stage hands breaks his leg but other than that things went well. So well the director has time for a few extra shots. Earlier they had already filmed several shots of Lis tootling around on a little jet ski thing you see in the show. The director decides he wants a shot of Lis getting on and pushing off into the water. Now you have to understand this is an underground river that runs through the caves and then down underground again. The current is very swift. You go down that hole you don't come back. Standing by for safety was stunt man Terry Walsh. Terry was suppose to be getting ready for another shot as a Vogan but refused to leave until the scene was shot as he knew the water was dangerous. The scene began rolling and Lis ran up to the jet ski, pushed off into the water and then tried to start the motor. It wouldn't start and Lis began drifting towards the hole where the river ran back underground. Lis at this point had two choices and neither were good. She could stay on the now powerless jet ski but she would then be sucked under or she could jump off into the water wearing combat boots. Lis had to jump off. Lis tried desperately to swim but with the heavy boots on she could not keep above water and was starting to drown. Terry Walsh when he saw what was happening wasted no time and was in the water in a flash. Swimming out to Lis he managed to get her back to shore but not until after she had swallowed a bunch of water. Terry Walsh had without question saved her from drowning. Lis was taken to a local hospital by ambulance where she was kept overnight and recieved a tetanus shot. Lis has said after it was all over and she was in the hospital she shook. By this time Lis was becoming a well known celebrity in Britain as well and was recieving a lot of fan mail, especially from children. Lis also was doing many public appearances including getting to turn on the lights at Blackpool with Tom Baker and Ian Marter and talking on a few talk shows. Lis got along very well with her new castmates. While perhaps the quantity of Sarah Jane's lines may have gone down a bit with the addition of new companion Harry Sullivan, the quality did not. The character of old fashion Harry meshed well with the liberated Sarah Jane as did Ian and Lis. Lis is an avid scribler when it comes to her scripts with the margins often filled with little notes. At one point Ian notice the letters OOB on one of her scripts. He asked her what that stood for and Lis replied "Out of breath". A reminder to Lis that in the scene Sarah Jane should start being winded from running. After this the phrase OOB became a running joke between the two of them. Also notable in this season was the show Ark in Space. Not only a fine show but the highest rated Doctor Who episode up to that point, being passed later by Android Invation the next year. The show had also passed successfully not only from Jon Pertwee to Tom Baker but also changing Producers with Philip Hinchcliffe taking over the Producer's chair from Letts with Ark in Space. The golden era of Jon Pertwee and UNIT was over but a new golden era was beginning.
Lis's third Season is truely one of the classic seasons in Doctor Who history. Lis began to be allowed more and more imput into her character and her costumes. Lis decided that since the Doctor was such an eccentric that that would rub of on Sarah and should be reflected in the way she dressed. Her philosophy was since Sarah was the only female in the show, why not dress her up. The result was some very unique costumes for Lis to wear including a stunning white dress in Pyramids of Mars and other memorable costumes. In this season of Doctor Who Philip Hinchcliffe had a wonderful plan and every episode from this season is an homage to a classic horror film in some way (Excluding Terror of the Zygons which was actually filmed the season before). In this season we see the Doctor Who version of the Wolfman, The Mummy, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Frankenstein and The Thing. With so many monsters around Lis was required to scream quite often but also she was able to make use of her acting skills. In Brain of Morbius we see her give a great performance when Sarah is blind for a large part of the show. In Pyramids of Mars we see Sarah deal with the realization that her future might never be and her determination as she prepares to fire a rifle to blow up a rocket. Without question Lis and Tom had melded together into a wonderful acting team and the chemestry works perfectly.
After Lis' third season with Doctor Who she decided it was time to go before she was asked to leave (Not likely to happen). By this point Lis had grown to become the most popular companion in Doctor Who history and the news of her leaving made the newspapers alongside the regular news stories. Lis decided she did not want to be married of or anything like that unless it was to a monster, perhaps be Mrs. Dalek she suggested. Lis actually suggested Sarah be killed off much to the horror of producer Philip Hinchcliffe. Instead Hinchcliffe did something truely unusual, he let Lis and Tom write her departure scene. The scene is perhaps one of the best in Doctor Who history. The character of Sarah Jane had truely grown over the three and a half years of the show. Starting off as an almost stereotype womens libber, Lis transformed Sarah into a very warm and human character. In the end we could not help but feel for Sarah as she says goodbye. Clad in the now famous Andy Pandy outfit, clutching a stuffed owl and a very odd plant, Sarah Jane wanders off down the road to home whistling a tune. The tune by the way was called "Daddy Wouldn't buy me a Bow Wow". A sign of things to come as it turned out.
After doing the talk show rounds and a short 20 min Doctor Who radio show for kids, Lis went back to her roots with her husband Brian. They went back to the Liverpool Playhouse where they did a season there, acting in three plays. She also did a few BBC radio shows, commercials and such but seemed to enjoy being out of the grind of a tv series. This changed though after a year when Lis was offered a part in the Yorkshire tv show for children called Stepping Stones. This was an early morning educational program where Lis got to do everything under the sun rather than play a single character. The program was similar to the childrens programs on PBS in the US and Lis did 98 episodes over two years. After that Lis once again went back to her acting roots appearing on Granada Television where she had done so many bit parts during her Manchester Theater days. This time though she had a lead role in the show Send in the Girls that also featured her husband Brian. After doing a tv movie called Betzi, Lis was once again offered a role in a TV series at Granada. The show was a comedy called Take My Wife where she played the kooky wife of a stand up comic. While the show recieved good reviews, especialy Lis, it was unsuccessful and was only on for one season, six episodes. She did although get to do something she had always wanted to though this year. For the first time Lis appeared on the silver screen in the movie Silver Dream Racer. While only a small part as a secretary (She had one line and they misspelled her name in the credits) Lis did fullfill her dream of being in a movie.
In 1980 Tom Baker after 7 years as the Doctor decided to leave the show. New producer John Nathan-Turner had an idea. How about bringing Sarah Jane back for a season to bridge the change from one Doctor to another? Lis was tempted but declined. JNT was a Lis fan though and came up with another idea. How about your own series as Sarah Jane? This interested Lis as no companion had ever had their own show before. JNT told her he would get a writer who knew Lis and the script would be written specificly for her. The reality was far different. The show was called K9 & Company with the pilot episode being called A Girls Best Friend. JNT picked Terence Dudley to write the pilot episode. Now Dudley, though a talented writer, was new to Doctor Who and unlike as JNT promised, did not know Lis or the character Sarah Jane that well. The result was in K9 and Company we have Sarah Jane typing, driving and doing karate, none of which Lis knows how to do (Lis hates driving). Also missing was a lot of the charm that was Sarah Jane. It seemed as if Sarah had lost much of her warmth from years before being very serious most of the time. Still this is a minor complaint and as we know many series that have turned out well started out with less than spectacular pilots. While the show had huge potential, the pilot did not live up to hopes. K9 and Company aired in Dec. of 1981 during a blackout for a large chunk of Britain. The result was low ratings and the BBC passed on the series.
Even without K9 & Company Lis' career was still in full swing. Doing more guest shots and commercials and a project that Lis counts as one of her best, as do I. In 1980 Barry Letts came to Lis with a script. The project was a TV movie called Gulliver in Lilliput with Lis playing Lady Flimnap and Andrew Burt playing Gulliver. Lis stole the show in this movie as the rather naughty wife of a goverment official. One great scene is where she talks to a friend about how nice it would be being a widow. "Why shouldn't we go from Bride's gown to widow's dress the way an actor changes costume?". In another she teases her poor husband into doing what she wants by rather sexily pulling on some stockings. The poor man is undoubtably the most frustrated man in Lilliput. While not a truely evil character she definately would not win any goody goody awards. This show is available on video and a must for any fan of Lis'. Truely one of her best works. The Miller family did have another encounter with Doctor Who at this point but this time husband Brian Miller was in the show playing Dugdale in the episode Snakedance. From there Brian went on also to do the voices for the Daleks in Ressurection of the Daleks. Yes, Lis finally became Mrs. Dalek.
In 1983 it was decided to do a 20th anniversary show for Doctor Who called The Five doctors and to bring back as many companions as they could. Lis felt it would have been rude to have said no to doing the the show. Fortunately for Lis in all this crunching of script to fit all this in, she actually gets a few good scenes. The script was written this time by long time Doctor Who writer Terrence Dicks and he fortunately knew the character of Sarah Jane well. While she wasn't the star of the show at least we got to see the Sarah Jane as we knew her from the Tom Baker years with her charm and warmth coming through. The other nice thing was Lis once again got to work with Jon Pertwee and it seems things did not change much in the years. The filming took place in a gravel pit and it was very cold. Lis and Jon were standing out waiting for the shot to start and were freezing. While waiting the director asks if Lis would mind slapping Jon in the face a bit. She answered "Yes I would mind. I'm rather fond of him actually". The director explained that it was so cold, Jon and her were turning blue and he wanted them to slap each other a bit to get some color back into their faces. So Lis and Jon stood in a quarry in freezing cold slapping each other. What an odd sight that must have been.
Lis' involvement after the Five Doctors with Doctor Who continued to remain strong. This time on the convention circuit. In the 80s Lis did many conventions in both in Britain and the US. In the US Lis could be seen in Los Angelas, Chicago, Mobile Alabama and at one point she did a Whovian tour that toured the East coast of the US. It was at one of these cons that Lis was asked to provide a rather unusual donation for a celebrity charity auction....a pare of her knickers. The request was made due to the accidental brief flashing of them in a shot during the Ark in Space. Lis being one to rarely say no to a charity, complied by bringing down a red pair only to be told they wanted a white pair as that was the color of the ones flashed in Ark in Space. Lis got a white pair and yes they were sold at auction at the convention. The man who was the high bidder later in the day even had Lis autograph them and mentioned he was going to frame them. Lis to this day talks about how a pair of her autographed knickers are hanging on a wall somewhere in America. Lis enjoyed her times at the cons and also enjoyed the chance it gave her to travel. If Lis was there so was her husband Brian and they often used the money they made by appearing at the cons to take extended vacations in the US to such places as Disney World. In 1985 Lis' life was changed again with the birth of a baby girl named Sadie. For a while after Sadie's birth Lis continued to come to conventions, although at a reduced rate, bringing along the family. It was not uncommon as Sadie grew older for her to sign autographs as well as her mom. After Sadie was born Lis slid into semi retirement concentrating her efforts on raising Sadie. While the number of jobs Lis accepted had shrunk she did do some quality work including a small bit in the Dempsey and Makepeace episode "Love you to Death" and The Doormouse in the BBC production of Alice in Wonderland. Lis, while not taking many roles as far as tv shows were concerned, did do quite a few tv commercials at the time and even did a Coca Cola one with Max Headroom. Finishing off the 80s Lis appeared in an episode of the tv series The Bill, playing Mrs Pamela Preston.
In the last ten years Lis has continued her semi retirement. Raising Sadie and taking care of a house she and Brian were semi restoring. She also is said to enjoy restoring old furniture from what I have been told as well as a few other craft hobbies. She still takes the occasional job as long as it isn't to time consuming and doesn't take her to far away from her family. Lis now rarely appears at conventions although she was in Chicago in '93 for Visions 30th anniversary of Doctor Who. She has also done a few Doctor Who projects as well including a radio special called The Paradise of Death in '93, the Doctor Who tv special Downtime for charity in '98 and the Dimentions in Time special. Lis was also involved in the making of a BBV audio project. Part of the Stranger Cronicles called The Last Mission, she plays Mirus Alexa opposite Colin Baker as The Stranger. Another of her most recent works was in the audio drama "Walking to Babylon" taken from Kate Ormon's book. She plays a character named Ninan-ash-tammu. One last note is it seems the Miller family has one more actor in the family now. Lis and Brian's daughter Sadie has her Equity card and has done some profesional acting of her own. The most notable in the BBC's 30th anniversary video, released in 1993. Remember the little girl in the Andy Pandy outfit with the owl? That was Sadie, Lis and Brian's daughter. If talent is hereditary that Little girl could be headed for quite a career. |
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