Elisabeth Sladen This Was Your Life

We all know that Elisabeth Sladen best known as the Doctor's companion Sarah Jane Smith passed away as a result of cancer yesterday. It came as a shock to us all and Whovians across the world were shocked at the second stalwart of the Jon Pertwee years, after Nick Courtney (who played Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart KBE), passing away in such quick succession. What was worse about Elisabeth's passing was that she was now loved by a second generation through the Sarah Jane Adventures a lot of little ones were either told last night or this morning that one of their favourite characters was no longer going to be around.

Therefore I'd thought I'd take a look at some of Elisabeth Sladen's work, not just Doctor Who related.

Even before she first met the enigmatic Dr Jones who was The Doctor undercover in Hand of Fear (her first adventure) she ran in Frank Spencer (Michael Crawford) as the greengrocers in Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em here is that scene.



Maybe it was her triumphant return to the series in which she made her name and left her mark in the episode School Reunion that made her the ideal choice to give an award to the Best Sustainable School in that year's Teacher's Awards. I hope the school and the judges in question had checked the chip oil in the kitchens.



The man who not only brought back Doctor Who  but of course Sarah Jane was Russell T. Davies. He like me was a child of the sixties growing up with Pertwee and Tom Baker. Here is the tribute that RTD made last night on hearing along with so many of the rest of us the sad news that Elisabeth had been cruelly wiped out by cancer. A disease which some of those that even worked with her in the last year say you wouldn't have known she was suffering from because of the old adage "the show must go on".



Then there is this from the Doctor himself, for those of us of my vintage. Tom Baker on his website has posted his own emotional tribute.

Sarah Jane dead? No, impossible! Impossible. 

Of course I have to finish with the original exit from Doctor Who the first time a companion's leaving drew as much attention as that of the Doctor's regenerations.




Finally I've found a moving poem created from lines spoken by Sarah Jane on muir_wolf's blog.

In the words of the Doctor

 "Don't forget me."

Sarah Jane and Elisabeth in the words you spoke back which ring out as true for you as they do for the Doctor;

"No one is ever going to forget you."

Thank you for being a part of my childhood and again part of my adulthood all these years later.