Anneke Wills

Anneke Wills (born Anna Katarina Willys in Berkshire on 20 October 1941^[1]) played the First and Second Doctor's companion Polly from The War Machines to The Faceless Ones, as well as Michelle Leupi in her final story. She is sometimes credited in her dramatic works as Annika Wills and Anneke Willys.

Anneke in the 1960's.

She appeared in the show from 1966 to 1967 alongside William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton as the Doctor. (According to the DVD featurette Doctor Who: Origins, she was also one of the actresses considered for the Doctor's first companion, Susan Foreman.) Other television credits include appearances in The Avengers episodes "Dressed to Kill" and "The £50,000 Breakfast," The Saint episode The Helpful Pirate and as Evelyn in Strange Report. She also appeared in an episode of The Sentimental Agent called All That Jazz.

Though Wills has recreated Polly for the Doctor Who audio plays produced by Big Finish Productions, she is also notable for the role of Lady Louisa Pollard, mother of companion Charlotte Pollard, in Zagreus, The Next Life, Memory Lane and The Fall of the House of Pollard. She also voiced Doctor Kitzinger in the Bernice Summerfield audio story Beyond the Sun and Director Nrosha in the Doctor Who audio story The Sandman.

Wills has published her autobiography in two volumes: Self-Portrait and Naked, both published by Fantom Films.

In the 1990s, she filmed scenes for a fan-made production titled Devious, which also featured Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor. While Pertwee's scenes were released with the DVD issue of The War Games, Wills' scenes have yet to be released, and the film remains "in production" in the 2010s.

She has a cameo appearance as an unidentified BBC staffer in the 2013 docu-drama An Adventure in Space and Time. Ellie Spicer^[2] portrays Wills in two scenes.

She also contributed to the charity reference book Behind the Sofa: Celebrity Memories of Doctor Who.

Personal life[[edit] | [edit source]]

During her time as Polly on television, she was married to Michael Gough. He made memorable appearances in Doctor Who as the Celestial Toymaker and the renegade Time Lord Hedin. They have two children, Jasper and Polly. Her daughter was not, however, named after the Doctor Who companion, as she was born in 1963.