STAR of Doctor Who Peter Capaldi has revealed that he’d love to bring back a character from the original series in the 60s – The Doctor’s granddaughter Susan. But what does Carole Ann Ford, who played the part, look like today?

The revival of the BBC series often gives nostalgic nods to the original Doctor Who, which ran from 1963 to 1989. The series – and its spin-off audio plays, novels and TV shows – has even brought characters back to the show once or twice.
And now Capaldi, who plays the twelfth incarnation of The Doctor, wants to bring back the character’s granddaughter Susan, who was portrayed by Carole Anne Ford from 1963 to 1964.

The actress is now 75, and so is in fact older than her on-screen grandfather by nearly 20 years (Capaldi is 58). It’s unclear how this would work if she did make a comeback, given that those from Doctor Who’s family don’t appear to age.
So what has she been up to since? And what does she look like now?

Since appearing on the show as a 24-year-old, the actress has appeared in a variety of theatre roles, on celebrity quiz shows and in films such as The Great St Trinian’s Train Robbery. Her most notable film role was in fact before Doctor Who, when she played Bettina and blind girl in the 1962 movie The Day of the Triffids.

She left the original Doctor Who series in an episode titled The Dalek Invasion of Earth, which saw her cease travelling with The Doctor (then played by William Hartnell) to run off with a resistance fighter from the future. She did return to the role for 1983’s 20th anniversary episode The Five Doctors, and in the years since has appeared in various novels and audio plays in the franchise, as well as the charity special Dimensions in Time. She also took part in the 50th anniversary special, The Five(ish) Doctors.

Her acting roles since the 1970s have been sparse, and she was criticised by fans when she took a role as a prostitute in an episode of a detective series because she had strayed away from the character she played in Doctor Who.

She said in an interview at the time: “I had the most searing letters from parents of small children who had been allowed to stay up late to watch this, because I was in it and they thought it was going to be something akin to Doctor Who. They were saying, ‘How dare you do this? You are a role model.'”

In 2013, the same year of the 50th anniversary, she blamed the show for her lacklustre career. Talking to the Telegraph, she said: “I must say that when I left Doctor Who, I was filled with… not loathing, but I was incredibly annoyed because I wanted to do more television and films and the only thing that people could ever see me in was a recreation of what I had done. A Susan clone. Some kind of weird teenager.

“I wanted to do work that would disconnect me from Doctor Who. That is a very difficult thing to accomplish, as many other actors who have played the companions have found out.”

She went on to out and out claim that the show was solely responsible for ruining her career, saying: “In no small way. Definitely. Nothing shook it off. Nothing.”

In stark contrast, she has recently taken a u-turn with her opinions of the show, now saying she would happily return. During a visit to the set in 2014, Capaldi floated the idea of her returning – something she said she would “love” to do.

“[Capaldi] started saying, ‘Oh, you should come back!’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’d love to come back!’ He was running around the TARDIS saying, ‘She’s got to come back! She’s got to come back’,” said the actress.

Doctor Who returns later in the year.