1. Sarah Jill "Lalla" Ward was born on 28 June 1951 and is an English actress, voice artist and author.
26 Facts About Lalla Ward
1. 2.
Lalla Ward is best known for playing the role of Romana II in the BBC television series Doctor Who from 1979 to 1981.
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Lalla Ward left school at age 14 because she "loathed every single minute of it", and took her O-levels on her own.
4.
Lalla Ward began her acting career in the Hammer horror film Vampire Circus, and played Lottie, the teenage daughter of Louisa Trotter in The Duchess of Duke Street, the BBC drama series of the mid-1970s.
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Lalla Ward appeared in the films England Made Me, Matushka, Rosebud, and Crossed Swords.
6.
Club International magazine ran a set of nude pictures, claiming they were of her but actually featuring images from the 1978 film Sweet Virgin, and Lalla Ward successfully sued the magazine.
7.
Lalla Ward was the second actress to play the Time Lady Romana in Doctor Who.
8.
Lalla Ward appeared in all of Season 17's stories and then her character was written out in the third to last story of Season 18 in the story entitled Warriors' Gate.
9.
Lalla Ward decided to end her acting career after marrying Richard Dawkins.
10.
Lalla Ward played the 'Mistress' opposite John Leeson's 'K-9' in two audio plays from BBV.
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Lalla Ward has recorded audio books, including Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct and Shada by Gareth Roberts and Douglas Adams.
12.
Lalla Ward co-narrated The Selfish Gene, The Ancestor's Tale, The God Delusion, The Blind Watchmaker and The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution with her then husband.
13.
Lalla Ward wrote two books on knitting and one on embroidery.
14.
Lalla Ward is a keen chef, and she contributed a recipe to The Doctor Who Cookbook which was edited by Gary Downie.
15.
Lalla Ward provided illustrations for Climbing Mount Improbable and Astrology for dogs by William Fairchild.
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Lalla Ward refers to her technique of creating fabric pictures as thread drawing, considering this a more accurate term for her work than the commonly used thread painting.
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Lalla Ward has shown three exhibitions at the National Theatre, London.
18.
Lalla Ward used one glass case to recreate her workspace, including such sources of inspiration as music, quotes, and a photo of her dog.
19.
Lalla Ward has served for almost 20 years on the committee of the Actors' Charitable Trust and 10 years as a trustee.
20.
Lalla Ward was in a relationship with her co-star Tom Baker while working on Doctor Who, and they lived together in a flat in Deptford.
21.
Lalla Ward attributed the separation to work commitments, different lifestyles and conflicts of interest.
22.
Lalla 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.
23.
Sarah Lalla Ward is the daughter of Edward Lalla Ward, 7th Viscount Bangor, and his fourth wife, Marjorie Alice Banks, Lady Bangor; as such, she is entitled to use the courtesy title "The Honourable".
24.
Lalla Ward's father was the BBC's war correspondent in Finland at the beginning of the Second World War, while her mother was a writer and BBC producer specialising in dramatised documentaries.
25.
Lalla Ward has a younger brother, Edward and an older half-brother, William, who is The 8th Viscount Bangor.
26.
Lalla Ward's great-grandmother Mary Ward was an Anglo-Irish illustrator and amateur scientist, documented as the first person in the world to die in a motor vehicle accident.