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Carole Ann Ford: 'Doctor Who? It destroyed my acting career.' |
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#1 |
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Carole Ann Ford: 'Doctor Who? It destroyed my acting career.'
I've just found this news report online, and quite honestly, it is a bit of a shocker!
![]() http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/t...ng-career.html It says in one part that after she left DW originally, she slumped into a depression, and went down to five stone, losing her voice also. She found it quite hard to get other work, too. I wonder what Carole is doing, now that the Classic DVDs have stopped and she can't record any more commentaries? ![]() Apologies if this has already been mentioned on here, but I've never noticed this on any other threads before. |
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#2 |
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Carole has always said that. Of course you can see her perspective but one can also see that it's jaundiced: who is to say she would have had any success as an actress without that role? She cannot say for certain her career would have been more accomplished without that one role. And in later years it's really given her a very nice financial benefit from conventions, work like Big Finish, royalties and so on.
In any walk of life it's easy to look at external or incidental factors and blame them for the course your life takes but it's much more difficult to examine yourself and your own actions and analyze where oneself could have made things different. If Carole had the talent to be a successful actress then she is the person who failed to capitalize on that talent. It's only her responsibility. If she's spent decades (5 of them! Half a century) taking an opportunity she received (big role in a major TV series) and regarding it as an albatross, as a negative factor, then it's fairly clear that her own perceptions, her own mindset were what held her back in her career. Carole always complained that her character was badly handled by the writers and perhaps it was but the truth is (and I like her but I'm being honest) she really wasn't very good in the role of the 'unearthly child' and I can sympathize with the production team changing her role to the 'ordinary teenage girl'. If Carole had been excellent in that role of 'unearthly child' they would have gone with that and they would have used her more in the stories, it's a simple as that. But again, it's much easier for an actor to blame the writer / the director / the producer / anyone rather than their own performance. Again, I like Carole, I like hearing her talk, but bottom line: she achieved in her career what she had the tools (talent and mentality) to achieve. |
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#3 |
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Again, I like Carole, I like hearing her talk, but bottom line: she achieved in her career what she had the tools (talent and mentality) to achieve.
![]() She was saying that if she could go back in time, if there was a real TARDIS, then there are things that she would do differently, to achieve more out of her life. Like getting proper work on TV and possibly movies, too. I do like Carole a lot, and am sad to know that she hasn't had much success in the Entertainment business since Doctor Who in late 1964. ![]() I must say, I am also sad that she went down to a dangerously low weight. ![]() I'm glad that she's doing okay these days and that she can look back at her DW days with a certain amount of glee.
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#4 |
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It's interesting how few Doctor Who assistant actors, especially the women, went on to have meaningful careers afterwards, whereas New Who seems have been beneficial for actor CVs!
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#5 |
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It says in one part that after she left DW originally, she slumped into a depression, and went down to five stone, losing her voice also.
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#6 |
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It's interesting how few Doctor Who assistant actors, especially the women, went on to have meaningful careers afterwards, whereas New Who seems have been beneficial for actor CVs!
One such example is, Matt Smith for one, who has had a reasonably good career since Doctor Who. I saw him ten days ago in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies at my local Odeon. He was excellent in that. Also, David Tennant, who I have to say has been excellent in both Jessica Jones and Broadchuch.
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#7 |
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So you're saying she hasn't got that anymore?
![]() She was saying that if she could go back in time, if there was a real TARDIS, then there are things that she would do differently, to achieve more out of her life. Like getting proper work on TV and possibly movies, too. I do like Carole a lot, and am sad to know that she hasn't had much success in the Entertainment business since Doctor Who in late 1964. ![]() I must say, I am also sad that she went down to a dangerously low weight. ![]() I'm glad that she's doing okay these days and that she can look back at her DW days with a certain amount of glee. ![]() CAF was not a good actor Imo, I always found her difficult to watch, and her acting in the five doctors was just awful. Sounds to me like she is looking for someone/something to blame for just not being very good. There are plenty of other better doctor who actors who managed to secure other acting work after DW. Her not getting any success outside of DW since 1964 says more about her I would say. |
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#8 |
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It's interesting how few Doctor Who assistant actors, especially the women, went on to have meaningful careers afterwards, whereas New Who seems have been beneficial for actor CVs!
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#9 |
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Who wouldn't want to go back and change things about their lives?
CAF was not a good actor Imo, I always found her difficult to watch, and her acting in the five doctors was just awful. Sounds to me like she is looking for someone/something to blame for just not being very good. There are plenty of other better doctor who actors who managed to secure other acting work after DW. Her not getting any success outside of DW since 1964 says more about her I would say. |
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#10 |
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It’s like a role reversal in a way, isn’t it? The women getting lots of TV and film offers after being in Classic Who, and the men getting more of the offers after their time in New Who.
One such example is, Matt Smith for one, who has had a reasonably good career since Doctor Who. I saw him ten days ago in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies at my local Odeon. He was excellent in that. Also, David Tennant, who I have to say has been excellent in both Jessica Jones and Broadchuch. ![]() |
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#11 |
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It’s like a role reversal in a way, isn’t it? The women getting lots of TV and film offers after being in Classic Who, and the men getting more of the offers after their time in New Who.
One such example is, Matt Smith for one, who has had a reasonably good career since Doctor Who. I saw him ten days ago in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies at my local Odeon. He was excellent in that. Also, David Tennant, who I have to say has been excellent in both Jessica Jones and Broadchuch. ![]() All the main stars in New Who have had decent careers after leaving the show, with many starring roles. The Companion parts are much meatier now (and hence show off acting ability much more), and the show not written off as "kid's TV". Indeed it could be argued that Karen Gillan has had better roles than Matt Smith since leaving! |
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#12 |
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Carole has always said that. Of course you can see her perspective but one can also see that it's jaundiced: who is to say she would have had any success as an actress without that role? She cannot say for certain her career would have been more accomplished without that one role. And in later years it's really given her a very nice financial benefit from conventions, work like Big Finish, royalties and so on.
In any walk of life it's easy to look at external or incidental factors and blame them for the course your life takes but it's much more difficult to examine yourself and your own actions and analyze where oneself could have made things different. If Carole had the talent to be a successful actress then she is the person who failed to capitalize on that talent. It's only her responsibility. If she's spent decades (5 of them! Half a century) taking an opportunity she received (big role in a major TV series) and regarding it as an albatross, as a negative factor, then it's fairly clear that her own perceptions, her own mindset were what held her back in her career. Carole always complained that her character was badly handled by the writers and perhaps it was but the truth is (and I like her but I'm being honest) she really wasn't very good in the role of the 'unearthly child' and I can sympathize with the production team changing her role to the 'ordinary teenage girl'. If Carole had been excellent in that role of 'unearthly child' they would have gone with that and they would have used her more in the stories, it's a simple as that. But again, it's much easier for an actor to blame the writer / the director / the producer / anyone rather than their own performance. Again, I like Carole, I like hearing her talk, but bottom line: she achieved in her career what she had the tools (talent and mentality) to achieve. Plus lots of characters have had their characters downgraded after their initial debut. Look at Zoe, Romana 1 and worst of Turlough. All of them had major character shifts as time went on. So it's not necessarily the actors fault if the characters get changed. I'm listening to her audio documentaries at the moment and it always comes across that she enjoyed her time on the show, that she loved working with her co-stars and that she envied other actors for having more to do than she did. Plus she has made lots of money from DVD and Big Finish and she does conventions, even I've met her once and she seemed quite nice about her time in the show. So I don't think she hates Doctor Who, just obviously the impact it had on her career. She's by no means the only actor to have suffered typecasting, others have had it to, Tom Baker being a noticeable example of that. |
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#13 |
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Who wouldn't want to go back and change things about their lives?
CAF was not a good actor Imo, I always found her difficult to watch, and her acting in the five doctors was just awful. Sounds to me like she is looking for someone/something to blame for just not being very good. There are plenty of other better doctor who actors who managed to secure other acting work after DW. Her not getting any success outside of DW since 1964 says more about her I would say. I like her in Dimensions in Time too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...eMIQpFBc#t=386
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#14 |
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Several of the female companions became agents after giving up acting, some even representing the later actors playing the Doctor.
Wendy Padbury is reported to have "discovered" Matt Smith. In the 60's and 70's a high % of actresses - like a lot of working women - gave up work to start a family. That does not happen these days, so companions like Billie Piper and Catherine Tate can easily have careers whilst also having children. |
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#15 |
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I think Carole acted brilliantly throughout most of her time on the show. My favourite Susan moment is in Planet of Giants, when she sees a giant ant and then a giant black cat! Also during the last few minutes of Dalek Invasion of Earth, she was good.
I like her in Dimensions in Time too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...eMIQpFBc#t=386 ![]() |
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#16 |
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Surprised no one has tried to work out which politician she is refering to?
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#17 |
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I've just found this news report online, and quite honestly, it is a bit of a shocker!
![]() http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/t...ng-career.html It says in one part that after she left DW originally, she slumped into a depression, and went down to five stone, losing her voice also. She found it quite hard to get other work, too. I wonder what Carole is doing, now that the Classic DVDs have stopped and she can't record any more commentaries? ![]() Apologies if this has already been mentioned on here, but I've never noticed this on any other threads before. |
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#18 |
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I can't think of ANY major female Companions where that applies, other than Louise Jameson.
Shame she didn't see them on TV, though. ![]() It has been implied that the TV version of Leela knows of the Daleks, as the Doctor mentioned them to her, just as was done with Zoe Herriot at the end of The Wheel in Space in 1968. It mentions in one book about DW, that Leela has heard of the Daleks. Can't quite remember which one, though. I've got so many!
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#19 |
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Surprised no one has tried to work out which politician she is refering to?
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#20 |
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Thing is every other actor found work ok.
Saw Deborah Watling in Downtime on DVD last week. She was quite good, I thought. Some of the other acting leaves a lot to be desired though. ![]() Shame the production team on DW Series 7 didn't ask Beverley Cressman whether she wanted to re-appear as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. ![]() As much as I like Jemma Redgrave in the role of Kate, I would have liked to have seen Beverley. |
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#21 |
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Not seen Anneke Wills and Michael Craze in anything since they left DW.
Saw Deborah Watling in Downtime on DVD last week. She was quite good, I thought. Some of the other acting leaves a lot to be desired though. ![]() Shame the production team on DW Series 7 didn't ask Beverley Cressman whether she wanted to re-appear as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. ![]() As much as I like Jemma Redgrave in the role of Kate, I would have liked to have seen Beverley. |
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#22 |
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Not seen Anneke Wills and Michael Craze in anything since they left DW.
Saw Deborah Watling in Downtime on DVD last week. She was quite good, I thought. Some of the other acting leaves a lot to be desired though. ![]() Shame the production team on DW Series 7 didn't ask Beverley Cressman whether she wanted to re-appear as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. ![]() As much as I like Jemma Redgrave in the role of Kate, I would have liked to have seen Beverley. The Patient 1994 The Healer 1987 The Diary of Anne Frank 1986 The December Rose 1978 Terror 1970-1977 Z Cars 1976 Evil Heritage 1974 Intimate Strangers 1974 BBC Play of the Month 1974 Madhouse 1974 Crown Court 1973 Two Women 1973 Ooh La La! 1972 The Exorcism of Hugh 1972 The Pathfinders 1972 Holly 1971 Rules, Rules, Rules 1971 Bel Ami 1970 A Family at War 1970 Sentimental Education 1970 The Doctors 1970 Ivanhoe 1969 Detective 1969 ITV Sunday Night Theatre 1969 Journey to the Unknown 1967 Fantasy: A Long Spoon 1967 Sat'day While Sunday 1967 Send Foster As for Anneke she was in The Avengers & Strange report so wouldnt say they did nothing after Who. |
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#23 |
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Later she met and married a Yank and moved to sunny California.
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#24 |
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Surprised no one has tried to work out which politician she is referring to?
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#25 |
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New Who appears to have been beneficial for all the main cast members. Chris, Billie, John, David, Freema, Catherine, Matt, Karen, Arthur and Jenna are all getting a load of high-profile work.
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