Dame Lis

[parrot_knight]

Further to the news of Elisabeth Sladen's death yesterday, I've been dipping in and out of the latest Doctor Who DVD, Planet of the Spiders, which was released this week. There's a fifteen-minute interview with John Kane, who played Tommy in the serial, where (among other insights) he observes that Elisabeth Sladen had the same powers of being able

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[neohippie]

I surprised myself with how upset I am about this. At the grocery store just now I found my mind wandering to this a bit.

I guess it's because it's just so unexpected. She seemed so young, and she apparently did a good job keeping her illness secret. Nicholas Courtney was sad, but I wasn't really that surprised to hear about him passing.

When I first saw the headline, the thought crossed my mind that it might have been some sort of accident. Then I read about her "long battle with cancer." Really?

This Saturday is going to be... interesting.

[parrot_knight]

There is going to be some sort of dedication or acknowledgement at the start of Doctor Who this Saturday on BBC 1, but whether this will be followed by BBC America and other broadcasters I don't know.

I saw (on the ITV regional news programme Granada Reports's report on Lis's death, as their area covers both her home ground of Liverpool and the site of her first television appearance, in Coronation Street) that Elisabeth Sladen's birth year was given as 1946 rather than the 1948 cited by earlier reports - and research by Wikipedians shows that 1946 is correct. Professional and private to the end, was Ms Sladen.

I look forward to those last Sarah Jane Adventures episodes - I'm sure they will be shown at some point this year as planned. CBBC has devoted a lot of time today to breaking the news of Lis's death to their young audience.