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‘A Hero Mumsy’: Parenting, Power and Production Changes in The Sarah Jane Adventures

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British Television Drama
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Abstract

The Sarah Jane Adventures (BBC 2007–11) was originally intended by the BBC’s children’s channel, CBBC, to be a show revolving around ‘a teenage Doctor — described as “Young Doctor Who” — aimed at the children’s market’.1 When approached by CBBC, Russell T Davies, show-runner, chief writer and executive producer of the regenerated Doctor Who (BBC 2005–), was unenthusiastic about the idea and instead suggested a programme about previous Companion to the third and fourth Doctors, Sarah Jane Smith, and her robot dog, K9. The award-winning programme about the adventures of Sarah Jane, her adoptive son, Luke, and their friends defending the Earth against alien threats subsequently ran for five series and was only cut short by the death of the star, Lis Sladen, in 2011.

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Notes

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© 2014 Victoria Byard

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Byard, V. (2014). ‘A Hero Mumsy’: Parenting, Power and Production Changes in The Sarah Jane Adventures. In: Bignell, J., Lacey, S. (eds) British Television Drama. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137327581_12

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