Visit the official Doctor Who website

Visit the official Doctor Who website
Look to the future

Asylum seekers...

Asylum seekers...
Refuge of the Daleks

Doctor Who picture resource

Doctor Who picture resource
Roam the space lanes!

Explore the Doctor Who classic series website

Explore the Doctor Who classic series website
Step back in time

Infiltrate The Hub of Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood

Infiltrate The Hub of Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood
Armed and extremely dangerous

Investigate The Sarah Jane Adventures

Investigate The Sarah Jane Adventures
Fearless in the face of adversity

Call on Dani’s House

Call on Dani’s House
Harmer’s a charmer

Intercept the UFO fabsite

Intercept the UFO fabsite
Defending the Earth against alien invaders!

Uncover the secrets of the Dollhouse

Uncover the secrets of the Dollhouse
Programmable agent Echo exposed!

Hell’s belles

Hell’s belles
Naughty but nice

Love Exposure

Love Exposure
Flash photography!

Primeval portal

Primeval portal
Dressed to kill or damsels in distress?

Charmed, to be sure!

Charmed, to be sure!
The witches of San Francisco

Take on t.A.T.u.

Take on t.A.T.u.
All the way from Moscow

Proceed to the Luther website

Proceed to the Luther website
John and Jenny discuss their next move

DCI Banks is on the case

DCI Banks is on the case
You can bet on it!

On The Grid with Spooks

On The Grid with Spooks
Secret agents of Section D

Bridge to Hustle

Bridge to Hustle
Shady characters

Life on Ashes To Ashes

Life on Ashes To Ashes
Coppers with a chequered past

Claire’s no Exile

Claire’s no Exile
Goose steps

Vexed is back on the beat!

Vexed is back on the beat!
Mismatched DI Armstrong and bright fast-tracker Georgina Dixon

Medium, both super and natural

Medium, both super and natural
Open the door to your dreams

Who’s that girl? (350-picture Slideshow)

Friday 28 December 2007

Whatever Happened to Sara Griffiths?


Sometimes when you enjoy an actor’s performance in a favourite programme you keep a sharp eye open in the hope of catching them again in something else. After seeing them once or twice more, they then seem to vanish off the face of the Earth, never to be seen again, and you forget all about them or file them away at the back of your mind. Imogen Boorman was one such actress, for me, who was stunningly gorgeous in the “Hellraiser” sequel “Hellbound”. I believe she gave up acting following stints in “Coronation Street” and “Casualty”. After my last post, in which I compared “Voyage of the Damned” with an old Sylvester McCoy story, I began to wonder whatever happened to Sara Griffiths? I enjoyed her performance as gun-toting tomboy Ray in the “Doctor Who” story “Delta and the Bannermen”, a little over twenty years ago, and am still puzzled, to this day, as to why the producer, John Nathan-Turner, chose Sophie Aldred to succeed Bonnie Langford over the young Welsh actress. Based on their respective performances in “Delta and the Bannermen” and “Dragonfire”, I would’ve gone with Sara rather than Sophie. Sophie’s debut as Ace lacked confidence whereas you believe, wholeheartedly, in Sara’s motorcycle-loving Rachel.


I decided to do a little investigating to find out what became of Miss Griffiths! I discovered that, as a teenager, she was a can-can dancer at the world-famous Moulin Rouge in Paris! She’s appeared on television in the usual round of shows that you might expect to find an aspiring actress, “Emmerdale”, “The Bill”, “Holby City”, but what surprised me was that, for the last two years, she has been working as a presenter on the shopping channel QVC (Freeview, channel 16)! I confess I found that a little sad but a girl has to earn a living. I say girl because when she appeared in “Doctor Who” that’s what she was, a mere 18-year-old, and, naturally enough, that’s how I remember her. However, I managed to find a few screen caps from her appearances on QVC. I can’t say that I would’ve recognised her, after all these years, until looking more closely at her eyes! And, sure enough, that’s her alright, appropriately situated next to a silver Christmas tree! When you consider she is a trained dancer in ballet, flamenco, tap and contemporary dance and also an accomplished musician who plays the flute, guitar, recorder and keyboards, selling goods on telly seems rather a waste of talent but I suppose it all depends on how much you want to appear on TV!

7 comments:

Steve said...

Yes it's weird how we all view the Shopping Channels as a dead-end TV job... but I suppose they must be lucrative and possibly the jobs are much safer than being in the spotlight one moment and cast into the gutter the next. I never saw Sara Griffiths in an acting role but she obviously impressed you. That being accepted then it is a shame she is not putting her acting talents to better use!

TimeWarden said...

Does anybody actually watch any of the shopping channels, though, Steve? I have to admit that, since I discovered Sara to be working on QVC, I occasionally take a peek but have yet to spot her! I also admit that I can't stand watching it for more than about a minute!!

I suppose acting roles haven't come Sara's way of late as I believe she's also voiced a couple of commercials. She did return to the world of "Doctor Who" briefly, in 2006, for one of the Big Finish audio stories.

Andrew Glazebrook said...

My Mum loves QVC, I bet if I mention Sara Griffiths to her she'll know who I mean !!

TimeWarden said...

At least I know who watches QVC now, Andrew! I still haven't managed to spot Sara on the channel so if your Mum knows what time she's on?!!

Andrew Glazebrook said...

A mate of mine mentioned he'd seen Sara's pics on a forum, he sent me the link to this earlier. Sara Griffiths caps % pages of QVC screencaps

Andrew Glazebrook said...

That was meant to say 5 pages not % :)

TimeWarden said...

Many thanks for the link, Andrew.

The second pic of this post came from that forum but I'm grateful you reminded me as I wouldn't have revisited otherwise and it has been massively updated since I last looked!