Sarah Sutton (born 12 December 1961) is a British actress. She played the role of Nyssa in the BBC

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

television series ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the ...

''.

Early life

Sutton was born in

Basingstoke Basingstoke ( ) is the largest town in the county of Hampshire. It is situated in south-central England and lies across a valley at the source of the River Loddon, at the far western edge of The North Downs. It is located north-east of Southa ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

, England. Sutton studied

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form ...

as a child and was only 11 when she became the youngest British actress to have played

Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...

on screen, in a 1973 television film of '' Alice Through the Looking Glass''. She began acting at the age of nine in A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh. She made her first appearance as Baby Roo just five days after her ninth birthday at the Phoenix Theatre in the West End of London, 1970-1972. Besides her performance as Alice, Sutton appeared in a number of television programmes before ''Doctor Who'', including ''

The Moon Stallion ''The Moon Stallion'' is a British children's television serial made by the BBC in 1978 and written by Brian Hayles, who also authored its novelization. The series stars Sarah Sutton as Diana Purwell, a young blind girl who becomes embroiled in ...

'' (1978) as Diana Purwell and ''

The Crucible ''The Crucible'' is a 1953 play by American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692–93. Miller wrote the play as ...

'' (1980) as Susannah Walcott.

Career

Sutton portrayed the character of Nyssa, a Trakenite aristocrat, in ''Doctor Who''. Her first appearance in the role was in the 1981 serial ''

The Keeper of Traken ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

''. Initially, Nyssa was intended to appear only in one story, the production team later deciding to keep her as a continuing character. After joining the Fourth Doctor in the subsequent story '' Logopolis'', her final full ''Doctor Who'' serial was with the Fifth Doctor, in 1983's '' Terminus''. Sutton took a break from acting after ''Doctor Who'', focusing for a number of years on raising her daughter, Hannah, with her GP husband, Mike. She made a brief appearance in Peter Davison's final ''Doctor Who'' serial, ''

The Caves of Androzani ''The Caves of Androzani'' is the sixth serial of the 21st season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts on BBC1 from 8 to 16 March 1984. In the serial, the Doctor b ...

'' (1984), played Sarah Dryden in a 1989 episode of the BBC medical drama series '' Casualty'' and Wendy in a 1992 episode of ''Unnatural Pursuits''. Sutton reprised the role of Nyssa in the 1993 Doctor Who Children in Need special ''

Dimensions in Time ''Dimensions in Time'' is a charity special crossover between the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' and the soap opera '' EastEnders'' that ran in two parts on 26 and 27 November 1993. It was filmed on location at Greenwi ...

'', and subsequently in several of the

Big Finish Productions Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays (released straight to compact disc and for download in MP3 and m4b format) based, primarily, on cult science fiction properties. These include '' Doctor Who'', th ...

''Doctor Who'' spin-off audio plays from 1999 onwards. In November 2013 she appeared in the one-off 50th anniversary comedy homage '' The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot''. In 1997 she starred in a special episode of the BBC’s dramatic reconstruction series '' 999'' marking 10 years since the great storm of 1987. Sutton also appeared in several episodes of MJTV's original audio sci-fi CD series ''Soldiers of Love'' as Colonel Franklyn. She also played Sharon in the Take 1 Productions educational video drama ''TravelWise'' (2000). In 2001 Sutton starred as Sarah in ''Wirrn: Race Memory'', a BBV audio reusing concepts from Doctor Who In 2006 Sutton played Asaria, a role written specifically for her in the original science fiction audio monologue ''The Jarillion Mercy''.The Jarillion Mercy

Filmography

Television

Radio and CD audio drama

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sutton, Sarah Living people English child actresses People from Basingstoke 20th-century English actresses English television actresses 1961 births