I’ve mentioned before on here that somehow it seemed wrong that Sarah Jane Smith should be smoking, but it was often in smokers’ corner that I came across her and she was always friendly. She brought along her husband and daughter, too and made a family weekend of it. In the late 90s we used to go to a Cult Tv holiday weekend in November each year in Norfolk and she came along for a couple of years.

Lis Sladen was wickedly funny, approachable and lovely in real life. I was literally heartbroken when she left in 1976 and to this day I’ve wanted a pair of those stripy dungarees she wore in her final episode. She was clever, fearless, kind and pretty. Sarah Jane Smith was the feisty journalist accompanying the Doctor when I first started watching in 1974. Having such fun in the real world limited my options for dipping into Twitter, although I did share a little of our revelry with the world in passing, not checking at all what was happening to anyone else. I am very grateful to MiMi though, for making sure that I couldn’t ignore what everyone was talking about – their shock at the news that Elisabeth Sladen, who played Sarah Jane Smith in Doctor Who had died from a cancer she’d kept very private.

“How do I know that he loves me?” from Enchanted is sure to become a modern classic, and my sister’s and my rendition of For Good from Wicked is quite simply beyond compare. Songs from musicals and Disney to be exact. The modern day equivalent is singing along to songs on You Tube. In the olden days families used to gather round the piano for a sing song, or the ladies of the house would play the instrument in genteel and cultured fashion while everyone listened or danced.

So after a hard day’s envelope writing last night, we headed back to my sister’s where my niece Laura was cooking her risotto – which, I have to say, is one of the most delicious, punchy, garlicky, creamy, pretty things I’ve ever eaten. In her memory, there are three things I want to share with you.įirst, the tribute to her I wrote last year. She had been a childhood heroine not just to me but my daughter, who's a keen Doctor Who and Sarah Jane Adventures fan. The passing of Elisabeth Sladen, who played Doctor Who's Sarah Jane Smith was one such event. There have been few people in the public eye whose death has actually moved me to real, sorrowful tears.

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