Sladen, Elisabeth - Elisabeth Sladen - The Autobiography

During the final goodbye scene with David, walking up those park steps to the TARDIS, I was dying with every step. But I made it and I got my lines out. Job done!

Then I got the call from James, ‘Can you go up a bit more quickly?’

The tears were seconds away. I’ll be lucky to get up them at all.

In hindsight, if I’d been honest, maybe we could have done it differently but the script was written and I didn’t want to be the one to change it. This was the team’s third episode together. Billie and David were just getting established – they needed to be thinking about each other, not me.

As a result, I must have come across as a mad woman – I couldn’t focus on anything apart from my leg. I remember sitting next to David between takes. He was so charming, just nattering about this and that before going on to ask about how it felt for me being there. He said, ‘It must be really strange for you coming back after all the other Doctors?’ And all the while I was screaming inside at the pain. Everything he threw at me I answered with a strained ‘Hmm’, ‘Yes’ or just a bit of nodding. He said he’d been a fan since he was a kid – I bet he wasn’t by the end of that!

It was the same with Billie. On her first day on set we were gearing up to do some more running, or limping in my case, and she said, ‘Oh, what did your character used to wear?’ My head was all over the place so I managed to spit out something like, ‘Oh yes, a funny skirt’, but it came out a bit off, really. I’m sure Billie must have thought I was a little dim.

The leg really alienated me, I’m afraid. When I wasn’t on call, I was on my own packing it with ice or resting. As a result I never really felt part of the team. Even when I was free, events conspired against me. David had a roof terrace on the top of his trailer and I remember enviously listening to him and Anthony Head enjoying themselves up there – while I was stuck downstairs, doing interview after interview. Apparently the outside world was quite excited about the return of Sarah Jane.

It was such an honour to have been chosen to return and despite everything I really did have an amazing time but the leg colours everything, even today. I know we produced a fantastic episode but it’s ingrained in my head that the whole thing was a disaster. In fact, I still can’t see David or anyone else from that shoot without fighting embarrassment.

At least my last day was memorable for more pleasant reasons. As we began, the First announced, ‘Lis’s last day’, and then at the end there was a round of applause. Honestly, they couldn’t have done any more to make me feel important. Even so, as I boarded the train back to London, I thought, That’s the last I’ll be hearing from them.

Chapter Seventeen

In Case The Buggers Change The Locks

THE THING about Russell T Davies is he never stops planning. My farewell in School Reunion was originally written as being quite a tear-jerker. Then Russell said, ‘You know what, sad endings are too easy to do. Let’s have her walking away into the sunset with the dog, a spring in her step and the future at her feet.’ So that’s what we did. (If I’d whistled ‘Bow Wow’ it would have been The Hand of Fear all over again.) Even as we filmed it you got a sense that Sarah was going on to bigger and better things. It never occurred to me that we would ever discover what.

It was shortly after New Year’s Day, 2006, when I found myself back in a restaurant with Russell. This time we were joined by Julie Gardner and my agent, Roger Carey. I remember musing with Roger in the cab about what they wanted. There were whispers of an adult spin-off called Torchwood . Our best guess was Sarah might get a cameo in that.

‘It’ll be exciting for her to grow up at last,’ I said.

We had a bit of a chit-chat and a glass of wine, the usual skirting around the subject – although it’s never a chore sitting and skirting with Russell. The time just flies in his company.

Finally he revealed why we were there. I just stared at him, absolutely non-plussed.

‘Do you think it will work?’ I said.

I’m surprised Roger didn’t kick me under the table. Agents can be funny about you talking yourself out of work.

But Russell didn’t flinch. ‘Of course it will,’ he enthused, passionate as ever.

‘Well, what would you call it?’

Deep breath … ‘ The Sarah Jane Adventures !’ he announced proudly.

‘Why me?’

I can’t help myself.

‘Everyone in Cardiff loved you in School Reunion ,’ Russell explained. ‘The world needs more of Sarah Jane.’

My episode hadn’t even aired yet but the end result, he said, was so phenomenal he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to bring me back for good.

Slowly it began to sink in. Over the next hour I got the whole pitch. Nothing had been written but Russell had all the details worked out. Sarah Jane would continue the Doctor’s work of protecting Earth from alien attacks. She’d have a sonic lipstick to match his screwdriver. And, yes, K-9 would be involved. The difference this time was he wouldn’t be the headline act, due to contractual issues with his creator, Bob Baker. Oh, what a shame …

Then Russell dropped the bombshell about the children.

‘Oh my God, they’ll be the spawn of the Devil at that age!’ I exclaimed. But of course they weren’t. They are truly delightful, so young but so professional. And they’re very tactile, as am I – we have lots of hugs in the morning and it’s one big happy family, even with Yasmin Paige (Maria) going, Anjli Mohindra (Rani) coming in and now Tommy Knight (who plays Luke) off at university. Danny Anthony (Clyde) even calls me ‘Mama Lis’. If anything, it’s their show – I’m sure they’re just putting up with me sometimes.

The show was, in fact, everything Russell promised. He’d begun working in children’s television and it was a real passion of his to produce serious, quality drama for that age group.

To say the offer was unexpected is beyond understatement. I don’t think I was even coherent when I told Brian that night! It was incredible, of course, but there were serious issues. This would involve a major commitment. We’d do a pilot, then hopefully a series. That could easily eat up five or six months of the year, and I’d be working flat out, full time – away from home in Cardiff. I’d as good as retired, hadn’t I? Did I really want to get back on the treadmill?

I shared a train journey with Jane Tranter, head of BBC1, shortly after The Sarah Jane Adventures began. We were chatting about how much her children liked it. Then she said, ‘We just threw you in, didn’t we?’

‘Well, yes,’ I said. ‘I was just impressed by the quality of everything so I couldn’t say no.’

‘Oh,’ Jane sounded surprised. ‘If you hadn’t liked it, wouldn’t you have done it?’

‘No, I wouldn’t.’

‘ Really ?’ she said. I don’t think she meets many people in this business prepared to turn down their own show.

But I was barely in the business by then. It wasn’t a case of ‘Where is my career going?’ I’d had my career – anything work-wise was a bonus now. And there was no point in agreeing to something I wouldn’t enjoy – those days were over.

Which was the frame of mind I was in when I mulled over Russell’s offer. Then I remembered how much fun I’d had in Cardiff. My leg was still not 100 per cent but despite all the pain and all the problems I’d created, I also remembered how supportive everyone had been.

And then there was the BBC itself. In my day, if you want to call it that, Doctor Who had been very successful but you always got the impression the BBC were a bit … well … embarrassed by the programme. It was popular but the decision-makers didn’t know why. ‘It’s only a children’s show,’ they seemed to say. ‘We don’t need to worry about it.’