“One day I shall come back, yes I shall come back. Until then, there can be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs… and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine…”
No prizes for guessing who is listening to those heartbreaking words in 1964. It was, of course, the Doctor’s granddaughter, Susan Foreman.
And that can mean only one thing…
Yes, our next star guest is none other than the original companion herself, Carole Ann Ford!!!
Carole has had a long and varied career which began when she was just a child and appeared on TV, film and in the theatre in a range of roles. These included “Day of the Triffids” in 1962 and “The Great St Trinians Train Robbery” in 1966. However, she will always be remembered as the first companion to who introduced us to the maverick Time Lord known as the Doctor.
According to the documentary Doctor Who: Origins, an appearance on Z-Cars prompted Ford’s screen test for the role of Susan in Doctor Who in 1963. Playing the granddaughter of the Doctor, Ford was one of the three original companions to accompany William Hartnell’s incarnation of the Timelord. The character of Susan is the Unearthly Child referred to in the shows pilot and first episode. According to Ford, Susan was originally intended to be a character similar to those in The Champions, with telepathic abilities as well as the skills to fly the TARDIS, but changes were made that shifted away from this narrative. Nevertheless her character is a crucial part of the history of the show and a legend amongst the fan base. Her character departed from the series at the conclusion of the 1964 serial The Dalek Invasion of Earth, but returned briefly for both the series’s 20th-anniversary TV special, “The Five Doctors” (1983) and 30th-anniversary charity special, Dimensions in Time (1993).
We can not wait to bring Carole to SFS 2025!
