Sarah Sutton
{{short description|British actress (born 1961)}}
{{BLP sources|date=January 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2015}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2012}}
{{Infobox person
|image = Sarah Sutton.jpg
| imagesize =
| caption = Sutton at the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Celebration Weekend in 2013
| name = Sarah Sutton
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1961|12|12|df=y}}
| birth_place = Basingstoke, Hampshire, England
| death_date =
| death_place =
| occupation = Actress
| alma_mater = Guildhall School of Music and Drama
| known_for = Nyssa in Doctor Who
| othername =
| yearsactive = 1973–present
| spouse = {{marriage|Michael Bundy|1985}}
| children = 1
| website =
}}
Sarah Sutton (born 12 December 1961){{cite book |last1=Scott |first1=Cavan |last2=Wright |first2=Mark |title=Who-Ology: The Official Miscellany |date=2013 |publisher=BBC Books |page=120 |isbn=9781849906197 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RaI8KcaUdCsC |access-date=4 July 2022 }} is a British actress. She played the role of Nyssa in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who.
Early life
Sutton was born in Basingstoke, Hampshire, England. Sutton studied ballet as a child{{cite web |url=http://scifiandtvtalk.typepad.com/scifiandtvtalk/2010/12/doctor-whos-sarah-sutton-a-touch-of-nobility.html |first=Steve |last=Eramo |title=Doctor Who's Sarah Sutton - A Touch of Nobility |website=SciFi and TV Talk |access-date=5 May 2017}} and was only 11 when she became the youngest British actress to have played Alice on screen, in a 1973 television film of Alice Through the Looking Glass.
She began acting at the age of nine in A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh.A.A. Milnes Winnie-the-Pooh She made her first appearance as Baby RooBaby Roo just five days after her ninth birthday at the Phoenix TheatreThe Phoenix Theatre in the West End of London, 1970–1972.
Besides her performance as Alice, Sutton appeared in a number of television programmes before Doctor Who, including The Moon Stallion (1978) as Diana Purwell and The Crucible (1980) as Susannah Walcott.
Career
Sutton portrayed the character of Nyssa, a Trakenite aristocrat, in Doctor Who. She is exactly one week older than her co–star, fellow companion Matthew Waterhouse. Her first appearance in the role was in the 1981 serial The Keeper of Traken. Initially, Nyssa was intended to appear only in one story, the production team later deciding to keep her as a continuing character. After joining the Fourth Doctor in the subsequent story Logopolis, her final full Doctor Who serial was with the Fifth Doctor, in 1983's Terminus.
Sutton took a break from acting after Doctor Who, focusing for a number of years on raising her daughter.{{cite journal |title=The Galactic Orphan |journal=Doctor Who Magazine |issue=218 |pages=7–10 |date=26 October 1994 |via=Amazon.co.uk}} She made a brief appearance in Peter Davison's final Doctor Who serial, The Caves of Androzani (1984), played Sarah Dryden in a 1989 episode of the BBC medical drama series Casualty and Wendy in a 1992 episode of Unnatural Pursuits.{{Citation needed |date=March 2021}}
Sutton reprised the role of Nyssa in the 1993 Doctor Who Children in Need special Dimensions in Time, and subsequently in several of the Big Finish Productions Doctor Who spin-off audio plays{{cite journal |url=http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-11-23/doctor-who-50th-a-shiver-ran-through-me-the-moment-i-wrote-my-first-line-for-the-doctor |title=Doctor Who 50th: 'A shiver ran through me the moment I wrote my first line for the Doctor' |first=William |last=Gallagher |date=23 November 2013 |journal=Radio Times |access-date=5 May 2017 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924145004/http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-11-23/doctor-who-50th-a-shiver-ran-through-me-the-moment-i-wrote-my-first-line-for-the-doctor |url-status=dead }} from 1999 onwards. In November 2013 she appeared in the one-off 50th anniversary comedy homage The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot.{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03lv3mj |title=The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot |work=BBC |access-date=26 November 2013}} In 1997 she starred in a special episode of the BBC's dramatic reconstruction series 999 marking 10 years since the great storm of 1987.
Sutton also appeared in several episodes of MJTV's original audio sci-fi CD series Soldiers of Love as Colonel Franklyn. She also played Sharon in the Take 1 Productions educational video drama TravelWise (2000).{{Citation needed |date=March 2021}}
In 2001 Sutton starred as Sarah in Wirrn: Race Memory, a BBV audio reusing concepts from Doctor Who.
In 2006 Sutton played Asaria, a role written specifically for her in the original science fiction audio monologue The Jarillion Mercy.The Jarillion Mercy
Personal life
In 1985, Sutton married Michael Bundy, a general practitioner. They have a daughter, Hannah (born 1991).{{cite web|url=http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/bio/sarah-sutton.html|title=Sarah Sutton}}
Filmography
=Television=
class="wikitable sortable" | |||
Year
! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes | |||
---|---|---|---|
rowspan="3" |1973 | Menace | Belinda | Episode: "Boys and Girls Come Out to Play" |
Play for Today | Little Lavina | Episode: "Baby Blues" | |
Alice Through the Looking Glass | Alice | TV film | |
rowspan="3" |1975 | Late Call | Myra Longmore | 3 episodes |
Ten from the Twenties | Ina | Episode: "Aunt Tatty" | |
Oil Strike North | Amanda Fraser | Episode: "Time of Hazard" | |
1976 | Westway | Sue Harvey | 5 episodes |
1978 | The Moon Stallion | Diana Purwell | All 6 episodes |
rowspan="2" | 1981 | The Crucible | Susannah Walcott | TV film |
Byron: A Personal Tour | Mary Chaworth | TV film | |
1981–1984 | rowspan="2" | Doctor Who | Nyssa | 48 episodes |
1982 | Ann Talbot | Serial: "Black Orchid" - 2 episodes | |
1989 | Casualty | Sarah Dryden | Episode: "Charity" |
1992 | Unnatural Pursits | Wendy | Episode: "I'm the Author" |
1993 | Doctor Who | Nyssa | Episode: "Dimensions in Time" (two charity special mini-episodes) |
=Radio and CD audio drama=
class="wikitable sortable" | |||
Year
! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes | |||
---|---|---|---|
1999–2002 | Soldiers of Love | Colonel Franklyn | MJTV; 7 episodes |
2000–2021 | Doctor Who: The Monthly Range | Nyssa | Big Finish Productions; 64 releases |
2001 | Race Memory | Sarah | BBV Productions |
2006 | The Jarillion Mercy | Asaria | The Jarillion Productions |
2008 | Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles | Nyssa | Story: "The Darkening Eye" |
2011 | Doctor Who: The Lost Stories | Nyssa | 3 releases |
2011 | The Five Companions | Nyssa | Special release |
2013 | The Light at the End | Nyssa | Special release |
2014 | Dark Shadows: The Devil Cat | Emma Simon | Big Finish Productions |
2014–present | Doctor Who: The Fifth Doctor Adventures | Nyssa | 8 releases |
2015–present | Big Finish Short Trips | Nyssa | 6 releases |
2016 | Cold Fusion | Nyssa | Novel Adaptation |
2018 | Star Cops: Mother Earth 2 | Mary Ward | Big Finish Productions |
2020 | Timeslip: The Age of the Death Lottery | Charlotte Trent | Big Finish Productions |
2020 | Timeslip: The War That Never Was | Charlotte Trent | Big Finish Productions |
2023 | Timeslip: A Life Never Lived | Charlotte Trent | Big Finish Productions |
2023 | Timeslip: The Time Of The Tipping Point | Charlotte Trent | Big Finish Productions |
2021 | The War Master | Nyssa | Story: "The Orphan" |
2022 | Tenth Doctor Classic Companions | Nyssa | Story: "The Stuntman" |
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Official website|https://sarahsutton.co.uk}}
- {{IMDb name|id=0840401|name=Sarah Sutton}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sutton, Sarah}}
Category:British child actresses
Category:Actresses from Basingstoke
Category:20th-century English actresses