Caroline John
Caroline John (October 1940[1] - 5 June 2012[2][3]) was an English actress who played companion Liz Shaw in Doctor Who during its seventh season, and revived the character for the BBV P.R.O.B.E. video series, as well as the Big Finish Companion Chronicles line of audios.
On Doctor Who
As the essential role of the companion in Doctor Who is to ask a lot of questions which the viewer might be asking themself, incoming producer Barry Letts, who had "inherited" her from his predecessor, considered her character unsuitable and did not renew her contract. As Caroline was pregnant at the time, she might have had to resign had Letts exercised his option on her.
Caroline reprised the role of Shaw in the anniversary episode The Five Doctors, where her character's unearthly scream of "Stop him!" is still fondly remembered by Doctor Who fans. Liz later popped up in the special episode Dimensions in Time, part of the BBC's annual Children in Need appeal. Shaw later returned as the star of the BBV spin-off video series, P.R.O.B.E.. Beginning in the late 2000s, John resurrected Shaw for a series of five entries in the first seven seasons of Big Finish's Companion Chronicles.
A popular story told by Caroline John recounted how, in preparing for her role on Doctor Who, she purchased a dictionary of scientific terminology, then found that all the technical terms the writers had her character use were made up.[source needed]
Other work
In addition to her role as Liz Shaw, Caroline John also appeared as Laura Lyons in a 1982 televised version of The Hound of the Baskervilles, starring Tom Baker as Sherlock Holmes. She also appeared in episodes of Z-Cars, Casualty, The House of Elliot, and EastEnders.
John read most of the audiobook of Elisabeth Sladen's posthumously-released autobiography, with David Tennant, Brian Miller and Sadie Miller reading their contributions.
Personal life
John was married to Geoffrey Beevers, who is best known for playing the Master in The Keeper of Traken. The couple performed in two Doctor Who productions together: once during her televised run on Doctor Who — when he played UNIT Private Johnson in The Ambassadors of Death — and again the Big Finish Productions audio, Dust Breeding. The couple also appeared in the P.R.O.B.E. episodes The Devil of Winterborne and Unnatural Selection.
She was the aunt of Souska John, who appeared in Castrovalva.
