By Jack Bowman

Last night was a terrible shock. I came out of the tube, switched on signal, checked the Twitter feed and saw the news, over and over, that honestly you wouldn’t have believed you were due to read for many years to come.

“Lis Sladen, our Sarah Jane. RIP.”

Elisabeth Sladen, most famous for being the definitive Doctor Who companion, had passed on, aged 63, after battling cancer. The news didn’t – and still doesn’t – sit right; from the very start of her career as an assistant stage manager at the Liverpool Playhouse, to the very end as a children’s TV lead playing a character she gave life to just shy of five decades, Lis was a hard-working, strong, modesty, energetic individual. If anyone would beat this, it would have been her. It should have been her.

They often say the “Doctor Who girl” falls into two categories, the screamers and the fighters. Sometimes though, you get something else – an actress able to bring depth and beauty to the role. A lot of people credited Billie Piper for doing this when the BBC took a gamble and brought back the show in 2005. However, Billie had big shoes to fill as Lis Sladen was the one who absolutely did it first, back in 1973. Not only was she a phenomenally actress who made the companion role in Who an equal to the star and a lead role like none before her – not an easy task when working with Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker – she was also a wonderful, wonderful person.

I was lucky enough to first meet Lis when I was asked to step in at the last minute and do some panel interviews for a convention in Newcastle in 2001. Admittedly Lis was a little wary of being interviewed by someone she’d never met, as we all are as actors, yet within seconds that wariness gave way to a natural warmth, generosity, charm and effortless grace that lead brilliantly fun hour of conversation about her career to date. It also lead to an on-off friendship that lasted many interviews – she was gracious enough to always be complimentary and ask me back for her panels – and the next few years with occasional phone calls, always asking after myself and the then-house mate, about my career, what was new, always offering an ear and advice.

We lost touch in 2005, just as BBC Wales were making overtures to bring her back for what was then to be a one-off appearance opposite David Tennant in the episode School Reunion. And it was heart-warming to see her back on prime-time BBC One. And then punch-the-air-brilliant to see her get a long-overdue spin-off, which became The Sarah Jane Adventures. And every year the SJAs were recommissioned, like others I’m sure, the heart would swell a little with pride at her continued success. And then came the awards, which not only were much deserved, also felt long-overdue for such a brilliant, natural, talented screen actress.

I had hoped that even though we’d drifted, one day our paths would cross again and she’d make me laugh with her stories and give that unbeatable smile across a room once. Sadly, it is not meant to be, and all we can do is take our memories of her and offer our thoughts to her husband, Brian and daughter, Sadie in these desperate sad times.

Possibly the greatest tragedy in her death is that she would have been thoroughly bemused, by natural modesty, about the out-pouring of affection, love and tributes across Twitter, Facebook, the Internet and the national and international press, from her youngest fans to those who remembered her first time. If anyone had said to Lis back in 2005 the exciting crescendo her career would reach by 2011, she would never have believed you due to that trademark modesty. Yet that, with her ferocious acting talent, is why she deserved it. And here we are talking about her passing at no age at all. The country and the business has lost one of its national treasures.

There are many memories of Lis to share, to many in fact, so I will leave you with one. It’s the one that started the whole adventure and brought Lis into all of our lives: her casting in Doctor Who. She told me that the day of her audition went like this. She came in, and read for the producer, Barry Letts. He was impressed, so took her down to meet Jon Pertwee on the studio floor. While she and Jon got chatting, Barry walked behind her and gave Jon two thumbs up. Jon finished the conversation and Lis turned to Barry, who started another conversation. Then Jon gave Barry another two thumbs up behind her back. That is how a TV legend was born.

It’s said that occasionally, just occasionally, there’s a perfect human being. Elisabeth Sladen was one of those.

Goodbye, our Sarah Jane.