Jean Marsh, who played one of the less well known companions, Sara Kingdom, was an accomplished actress before and has had great success since, her time on Doctor Who. She is, of course, best known for the acclaimed 1970s period drama Upstairs Downstairs which she and her actress friend Eileen Atkins decided to write after having spent a weekend at the home of a well-to-do friend and seeing ‘how the other half lived’. Like Frazer Hines, who is recognised for both Doctor Who and Emmerdale, Jean has a distinct career beyond Doctor Who. Though that does not mean she doesn’t maintain links with the show. She returned to it in 1989 to play Morgaine in the Sylvester McCoy episode, Battlefield. That and the part of Joanna in the famously lost Crusades makes her a Doctor Who veteran even though there is a dispute about whether she is a companion or not.

Below Stairs Rose

In recent years, she has frightened young viewers all over again, as the evil Mrs Croker in the CBBC series Ghosthunter. In 2007 she is listed as filming a new TV version of Sense and Sensibility.

Queen Bavmorda

Mrs Croker