LALLA WARD

'Lalla Ward' (born Sarah Ward, June 28, 1951), also known as 'The Honourable Sarah Ward'^[1], is an English actress and illustrator. As an actress, she is best known for playing the part of Romana in the BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. She is married to evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.

Contents

Acting

Personal life

Family background

See also

References

External links

Acting

Ward's stage name, "Lalla", comes from her attempts as a toddler to pronounce her own name.⁴ She left school at the age of 14 because she "loathed every single minute of it", and took her O-levels on her own.⁴ After spending a few years painting, Ward auditioned at London drama schools "as a sort of dare" to herself.⁴ "It was a 'see if you can do it' sort of thing, because it was the thing I hated most — just like somebody who's scared of heights might go rock climbing, or, I don't know, go potholing if they're claustrophobic."⁴ Ward studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama from 1968 to 1971.⁴
She began her acting career in the Hammer horror film ''Vampire Circus'', and played the teenage daughter of ''The Duchess of Duke Street'' in the popular BBC drama series of the 1970s. She appeared in films such as ''Matushka, England Made Me'' (1972), ''Rosebud'' (1974) and ''The Prince and the Pauper'' (1977) and on television featured in Van der Valk (1973), The Protectors (1973), ''Quiller'' (1975), ''Who Pays the Ferryman?'' (1977), ''The Professionals'' (1978) and '' Hazell'' (1979). She acted in a film called ''Got It Made'' in 1974 which was later recut with sex scenes featuring other actresses and reissued as ''Sweet Virgin''.^[2] ''Club International'' magazine ran nude pictures from the film, claiming they were of her and Ward successfully sued the magazine.² In 1980, she played Ophelia to Derek Jacobi's Hamlet in the BBC television production.
She is best remembered as the second actress to play the Time Lady Romana (Romanadvoratrelundar) in ''Doctor Who''. She was chosen to replace Mary Tamm in the part, after a guest appearance as Princess Astra in the ''Doctor Who'' story ''The Armageddon Factor'' in 1979. She appeared in ''Destiny of the Daleks'', ''City of Death'', ''The Creature from the Pit'', ''Nightmare of Eden'', ''The Horns of Nimon'', ''The Leisure Hive'', ''Meglos'', ''Full Circle'', ''State of Decay'' and ''Warriors' Gate'', leaving the series at the end of that last story.
After she left ''Doctor Who'' she appeared in ''Schoolgirl Chums'' (1982) and ''The Jeweller's Shop'' and ''The Rehearsal'' on stage.

Personal life

Following her exit from the ''Doctor Who'' series in 1981, she married her co-star, actor Tom Baker, that December, but the marriage lasted only sixteen months. She later described Baker as both her favourite Doctor and monster. Regarding her marriage to Tom Baker, she is quoted as saying:
Ward said in 2004 that her long friendship with Douglas Adams, with whom she worked on ''Doctor Who'', meant more to her and was "more valuable and more enduring" than her marriage to Baker.² In 1992, at his 40th birthday party, Adams introduced her to his friend Richard Dawkins (biologist and author of such books as ''The Selfish Gene'', ''The Blind Watchmaker'' and ''The God Delusion'').^2[3] Ward and Dawkins married the same year.
After marrying Dawkins, Ward decided to end her acting career.² However, she has reprised the character of Romana in the 1993 charity special ''Dimensions in Time,'' the 2003 webcast version of ''Shada,'' and in several ''Doctor Who'' and ''Gallifrey'' audio plays produced by Big Finish Productions. She has also recorded audio books, including Steven Pinker's ''The Language Instinct'' and Dawkins' ''The Ancestor's Tale'' and ''The God Delusion'', in which she co-narrates with her husband.
Ward also illustrates Dawkins' books, and also wrote two books on knitting in the 1980s and one on embroidery. She created the 1985 Shell Calendar, with embroidered pictures of sea birds.

Family background

She was the daughter of Edward Ward, 7th Viscount Bangor, and his fourth wife Marjorie Alice Banks. Her father was the BBC's war correspondent in Finland at the beginning of WWII, while her mother was a writer and BBC producer specialising in dramatised documentaries. ^[4]
She has a brother, Edward, two years her junior, and a half-brother, William, who is the 8th Viscount Bangor, and three years her senior.
Through her father she is descended from George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV, via John Mordaunt, 1st Earl of Peterborough, John, 1st Viscount Mordaunt, and Bernard Ward, 1st Viscount Bangor.

See also

★ Asteroid 8347 Lallaward - asteroid named after her

References

1. Patricia Gräfin Fugger von Babenhausen and others Cited from Mosley, Charles, editor. ''Burke's Peerage and Baronetage'', 106th edition, 2 volumes. Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 1999.
2. .
3. Lament for Douglas
4. .

External links

★

★ Photos of Ward and information on her knitting books