Sadie Miller plays Sarah Jane Smith, ably assisted by Christopher Naylor as Dr Harry Sullivan.
As The Sarah Jane Adventures demonstrated, “Life on Earth can be an adventure too – you just need to know where to look.” The 00s show picked up Sarah’s life some 25 years after she unceremoniously left the TARDIS in South Croydon Aberdeen.
However, we do know a little about the character’s intervening years, as Elisabeth Sladen reprised her role for K-9 and Company, and appeared in ‘The Five Doctors’. Actress Sadie Miller, Sladen’s daughter, now performs the character for Big Finish, playing opposite both the Third and Fourth Doctors.
Surgeon-Lieutenant Harry Sullivan, on the other hand, left the TARDIS after his initial run of adventures. Notwithstanding a slight return for ‘The Android Invasion’, he was never seen again.
The character remained popular however, and actor Ian Marter turned his hand to novelising stories for the Doctor Who Target Books range, as well as a novel about Harry. Marter died in 1986, but in recent years Big Finish have recast Harry with actor Christopher Naylor. They’ve paired him with a Doctor or two, and sent him off on new adventures.
Now, the latest audio spin-off brings these two classic companions together for their own series, set in the 1980s.
Here’s the setup for Smith and Sullivan: Reunited…
Sarah Jane Smith: investigative journalist; Dr Harry Sullivan: UNIT operative. Together, they journeyed to the stars with the Doctor. But when the adventures end, what can they do?
Find more…
Reunited in the chaos of 1980s London, Sarah and Harry find danger and darkness lurking beneath the metropolitan veneer of wealth and technology. With trusty super-computer K9 and the brilliant Lavinia Smith alongside, new adventures are just beginning…
In three new audio dramas, Sadie Miller and Christopher Naylor are joined by John Leeson as K-9. Plus, Annette Badland plays Sarah’s Aunt Lavinia, the noted virologist (who was originally portrayed in K9 & Company by Mary Wimbush).
Smith and Sullivan: Reunited contains ‘The Caller’ by Tim Foley, ‘Union of the Snake’ by Roland Moore and ‘Blood Type’ by Simon Guerrier.
Producer Mark Wright said:
“I was so happy to take on producing duties for a trip back to the 1980s with Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan. These characters meant so much to me as a three-year old discovering Doctor Who for the very first time in 1974, so to be reuniting them for new adventures is a privilege – as is working with this incredible cast.
“In Sadie Miller and Christopher Naylor, we have two actors who have grown together as Sarah and Harry, paying tribute to the memories of Sadie’s mum Elisabeth Sladen and Ian Marter with a great deal of love in their wonderful performances. With national treasure John Leeson joining the team as K9 and Annette Badland stepping into the shoes of Aunt Lavinia, something very magical happened in studio on our first day.
“Our three stories for Reunited plunge Sarah and Harry into the dark corners of London’s metropolitan underworld. Extra-terrestrial artefacts are traded, technology is perverted, and sinister forces wait in the shadows of other dimensions…”
The Worlds of Doctor Who – Smith and Sullivan: Reunited is available to pre-order as a digital download from Big Finish. It’s out in July 2025.
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In the latest issue of DWM, there’s a great feature with Sadie Miller. In Becoming Sarah Jane Smith, she tries out some of her mother’s famous outfits and poses.