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Sophie Aldred

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Sophie Aldred
Aldred at The Television & Movie Store 2008
Born (1962-08-20) 20 August 1962 (age 62)
Greenwich, London, England, UK
Occupation(s)Actress, TV presenter
Years active1987 – present
Spouse
​
(m. 1997)​
Children2

Sophie Aldred (born 20 August 1962) is an English actress and television presenter. She portrayed the Seventh Doctor's companion, Ace, in the television series Doctor Who during the late 1980s.

Early life

Aldred was born in Greenwich, London, but grew up in nearby Blackheath. She sang in the church choir of St James', Kidbrooke and attended Blackheath High School from 1973 until 1980, before enrolling as a drama student at University of Manchester. She graduated in 1983 and decided to embark on a career in children's theatre. She also sang in working men's clubs around Manchester.[1]

Career

In 1987, she was cast as Ace in Doctor Who, initially for Dragonfire, the final story of the series' twenty-fourth season.[2] Her tenure on the show spanned the last nine stories of the programme's original run, which ended in 1989.[3]

In January 1992, she guest-starred in More than a Messiah, one of The Stranger original videos starring Colin Baker, also formerly of Doctor Who.

Both before and since Doctor Who, Aldred has had a varied and busy television career, particularly in children's programming, where she has presented educational programmes such as Corners, Melvin and Maureen's Music-a-grams[1] (which ran from 1992 to '96), Tiny and Crew (which she presented, 1995–99), the BBC series Words and Pictures (since 1992), and also CITV paranormal show It's a Mystery in 1996. She also played the character Minnie The Mini Magician from Series 8 onwards on CITV's ZZZap! between 1999 and 2001.

With Sylvester McCoy during filming of Remembrance of the Daleks (1988)

Aldred has presented and sung in several BBC Schools Radio series, including Singing Together, Music Workshop, Time and Tune and Music Box. She has also performed on radio and in the theatre. She has also reprised her role as Ace in the 1993 thirtieth-anniversary charity special Dimensions in Time and, since 1999, the Doctor Who audio plays produced by Big Finish Productions. As rumours swirled around in 1994 and 1995, old-school Doctor Who fans expressed hope that Aldred would reprise her role in the project that would become the 1996 Doctor Who television movie, but she did not appear and her character's fate was left unsaid.

Throughout the 2000s she has worked extensively as a voice-over artist for television advertisements,[3] and has also provided voices for animated series such as Bob the Builder, Sergeant Stripes, the UK dubbed version of the CGI animated version of the Australian TV series Bananas in Pyjamas, El Nombre, Peter Rabbit, Noddy in Toyland, The Magic Key and Dennis & Gnasher.[4]

She co-wrote the hardcover nonfiction book, Ace, The Inside Story of the End of An Era with Mike Tucker, published by Virgin Publishing in 1996. (ISBN 1-85227-574-X).

Aldred provided voices for the 2009 series Dennis and Gnasher, including that of title character Dennis the Menace.[5]

She was also a former presenter of the 1996 CITV Saturday morning magazine programme WOW!.

Sophie Aldred, Louise Jameson and Katy Manning at a Doctor Who 50th-anniversary event

Since 2012 Aldred has provided the voice of Tom in Tree Fu Tom, a BBC children's series. The series' other main voice actor, David Tennant (who voices Twigs), previously played the tenth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who. In November 2013 she appeared in the one-off fiftieth-anniversary comedy homage The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot.[6] In 2018, Aldred was confirmed to reprise the role of Ace in six audio dramas set during the first season of Class.

In 2020, Aldred released the novel Doctor Who: At Childhood's End, where an older Ace (now a philanthropist) meets the Thirteenth Doctor and her companions while investigating an alien satellite.[7]

Personal life

Aldred had a relationship with comedian Les Dennis during his first marriage.[8] She married actor Vince Henderson on 12 July 1997. They have two sons.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b "The Den of Geek interview: Sophie Aldred". Den of Geek. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  2. ^ "Interview with 'Doctor Who' star Sophie Aldred". independent.co.uk. Archived from the original on 10 February 2012. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  3. ^ a b "Doctor Who: Ace visitor in Norwich". BBC. Retrieved 29 December 2011.
  4. ^ "SueTerryVoices : Sophie Aldred female voiceover artist". sueterryvoices.com. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  5. ^ Dennis is a menace to 2012 equestrian plans London Evening Standard, 7 October 2009
  6. ^ "The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot", BBC programmes, retrieved 26 November 2013
  7. ^ Doctor Who: At Childhood's End Penguin Books, 6 February 2020
  8. ^ Barkham, Patrick (1 April 2008). "Beyond a joke". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
  9. ^ "Exclusive interview with 'Doctor Who' star Sophie Aldred – CultBox". CultBox. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
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Preceded by Doctor Who Magazine Editor
1997 		Succeeded by

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