The final series of The Sarah Jane Adventures begins on CBBC and BBC One next week.

Doctor Who‘s young’un-friendly spin-off has featured plenty of famous faces over the past four series, with many giving remarkable performances.

Samantha Bond oozing pantomime malevolence as Miss Wormwood, Katy Manning’s return as the ditzy Jo Grant, and Suranne ‘TARDIS’ Jones as a gobby Northern Mona Lisa all deserve mention, but the following five have stood out for bringing something a little bit special to Bannerman Road…

5. Julian Bleach (‘The Nightmare Man’)

A villain in all three ‘Whoniverse’ shows (having played Davros in Doctor Who and The Ghostmaker in Torchwood), Bleach brings the scares to SJA as the Nightmare Man. Chalk-faced and twitchy limbed, he’s like a haunted marionette that’s sprung to life, completed with a voice that sounds like a creaky door in Hell.

Just the way he says Luke Smith’s name is enough to send a shiver up your spine. It’s a really wonderful physical performance, made all the more sinister by his slow reveal through the first episode.

4. Bradley Walsh (‘Day of the Clown’)

Playing two different aspects of the same alien villain, Walsh manages a varied and surprisingly scary performance as Odd Bob the Clown and Circus ringmaster Elijah Spellman. Manic Odd Bob, with his Joker-esque Alabama drawl is set in stark contrast against the ice-cold nature of the German Spellman, and Walsh is so convincing as both that it could almost be two different people playing them.

That he changes form so readily lends a pleasing unpredictability to the episode’s villain. In both roles he’s creepy enough to get under your skin, but it’s Odd Bob who’s the more memorable of the two, proving to be the Pennywise of teatime telly and continuing that long history of terrifying clowns.

3. Nicholas Courtney (‘Enemy of the Bane’)

Finally out of Peru, the late Nicholas Courtney’s return as Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart warmed the hearts of Who fans of a certain age everywhere. And though it’s a shame he didn’t get to order his famous “Five rounds, rapid!”, he still proved there was life in the old dog yet.

The years may have taken their toll but he’s still our Brig; authoritative and ready to take matters into his own hands, even if it is just from behind the wheel of a Rolls Royce. Frankly just the chance to see him and Sarah Jane share a screen once more is enough to please; the interplay between the two old friends has such warmth and history behind it.

In what is a fairly middling episode, the Brig’s appearance is a real treat and a fitting farewell to UNIT’s finest.

2. David Tennant / Matt Smith (‘The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith’ / ‘Death of the Doctor’)

It’s impossible (and unfair) to separate these two. They’re remarkably different Doctors (see how they both differently address Sarah Jane), and appear in very different episodes, but both their performances are magnetic.

Tennant’s Time Lord is the mad best friend, Smith’s is the clumsy old professor, and both work beautifully with the central cast. Wisely, the Doctor isn’t the one to save the day in either adventure; instead he does what he so often does and empowers those around him to solve things, meaning our heroes aren’t eclipsed and it doesn’t just become another episode of Doctor Who.

Both also share beautiful final moments in the TARDIS with Sarah Jane, with the Eleventh Doctor’s conversation about the universe shivering at his own death being a particularly nice bit of foreshadowing for Series 6 and a certain meeting with an astronaut…

1. Nigel Havers (‘The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith’)

In an episode that was dominated by the appearance of David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor, Havers still managed to stand out as the tragic Peter Dalton; a victim of circumstance, love, and the machinations of an evil pan-dimensional being. Hey, we’ve all been there Pete.

As we watch his blossoming romance with Sarah Jane we can’t help but think there’s something wrong, and there is. Just not in the way we expect. He’s an unfortunate and entirely innocent man who’s been lied to and manipulated.

Havers plays Dalton beautifully, first as the charming chap courting Sarah Jane, then as a confused victim, but always as a man in love with our Sarah Jane. His demise, when it comes, is as heartbreaking as it is noble.

Do you agree? Let us know your favourite SJA guest stars below…

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