The fourth series of The Sarah Jane Adventures returns to CBBC on Monday 11 October 2010. The twelve part Doctor Who spin-off will see Elisabeth Sladen reprise her role as Sarah Jane Smith and see guest appearances from the eleventh Doctor Matt Smith and Katy Manning, back as Jo Grant, though now known as Jo Jones.
The regulars of Luke Smith (played by Tommy Knight), Rani Chandra (played by Anji Mohindra) and Clyde Langer (played by Daniel Anthony) also return. Created by Russell T Davies, the adventures in the fourth series take the gang into space and back in time to battle with Nazi soldiers and a Victorian ghost hunter.
The episode to watch out for will be “Death of the Doctor” when Sarah Jane and Jo join forces to tackle an interstellar conspiracy that threatens the life of the Doctor.
The programme will be shown twice a week on Mondays and Tuesdays on CBBC and then repeated on Wednesday and Thursdays on BBC Two in the first week and then BBC One after that. The Sarah Jane Adventures is a BBC Cymru Wales/Children's BBC Production.
The Nightmare Man
The series starts with a two-part adventure called “The Nightmare Man” in which Luke confronts his worse dreams. In his first ever nightmare he is haunted by a dark figure that starts to reach out into the world. The first part will be shown on CBBC on Monday 11 October 2010 followed by the second part on Tuesday 12 October 2010.
Guest Stars in the Fourth Series of The Sarah Jane Adventures
Guest appeareances include Survivors star Julie Graham as Ruby White; Primeval and Strictly Come Dancing star Laila Rouass as Colonel Karim; former X Factor contestant Lucie Jones as Gemma; Smack The Pony's Doon Mackichan as Louise Marlowe; Cheryl Campbell as Ocean Waters; Julian Bleach as the Nightmare Man; and David Bradley (short-tempered Hogwarts caretaker Argus Filch in the Harry Potter movies) as the voice of the sinister Shansheeth.
John Leeson returns as the voice of K9 and Alexander Armstrong is the voice of Mister Smith. Mina Anwar and Ace Bhatti play Gita and Haresh Chandra, respectively.
Matt Smith on Katy Manning
In an official BBC interview, Matt Smith talked about meeting Katy Manning: "Working with Katy Manning has been wonderful. She's a lovely person, mad as a box of fish, but totally dynamite! And she is so forthcoming about her time on Doctor Who. She has made me aware of what a privilege it is [to be playing Doctor Who]. I'm constantly aware of Doctor Who's rich history. There's a line in my Sarah Jane episodes that refers to a ventilation shaft – when Lis was Tom Baker's assistant her character got stuck in a lift shaft so my line is: 'Ventilation shaft... that takes me back – or maybe it's forward.' So I am aware of the heritage and aware too that I am just another stage in this very brilliant and wonderful show.”
The Story of Sarah Jane Smith
Sarah Jane Smith first appeared in the 1973 Doctor Who episode “The Time Warrior” alongside the third Doctor, played by Jon Pertwee. She was still with him in the 1974 episode “Planet of the Spiders”, when he dies and starts his regeneration. Her first full episode with the fourth Doctor (played by Tom Baker) was the final episode of 1974 – “Robot”. She stayed with him until the 1976 episode “The Hand of Fear” when he abandons her to return to Gallifrey. She was later to appear in the 1983 special “The Five Doctors”.
Her first Doctor Who spin-off appearance was in the 1981 show K9 & Company. The one-off episode had good ratings but was not picked up for a series. She returned again in 1993 in the Children in Need Doctor Who special “Dimension in Time”. She then appeared with Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge Stewart in the straight-to-video 1995 production Downtime.
She has appeared in four episodes of Doctor Who with tenth Doctor David Tennant, starting with the 2006 episode “School Reunion”. The other three were the 2008 episodes “The Stolen Earth” and “Journey’s End” and the 2010 episode “The End of Time”.
The Sarah Jane Adventures started in 2007, with the second series in 2008 and the third series in 2009. Sarah Jane was also in the 2009 Comic Relief special. Over the years, Elisabeth Sladen has also reprised the role for various audio plays both for the BBC and Big Finish productions.
Katy Manning has also played Jo Grant in some audio plays since her main role from 1971 to 1973 alongside third Doctor Jon Pertwee. However, she fell out of favour a bit with the powers that be in 1978 when she posed naked with a Dalek in a photo shoot for Girl Illustrated magazine.
Steve Rogerson - Steve Rogerson is a UK-based writer specialising in television, technology, sports and beer.
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