Whatever Happened to Susan Foreman? (audio story)

"Whatever Happened to Susan Foreman?" was a mockumentary that aired on BBC Radio 4 as the fifth installment of Adrian Mourby's Sony Award-winning first series of Whatever Happened to ...?

Format
Like the other episodes, it examined the life of a fictional character through the realistic lens of a researcher conducting an interview with a subject. Consequently, its format forced the actors to play the scenes "straight", which in turn enhanced the parodic elements of the piece. In a sense, its structure removed Susan (played here by Jane Asher) from the Doctor Who universe, allowing her metafictional comment upon it.

Its format also allowed the researcher to directly ask Susan many questions that naturally resulted from her appearances on Doctor Who. Whether or not one agreed with the answers, Whatever Happened was the first piece of performed Doctor Who to answer such things as:
 * Did the Doctor ever see Susan after the events of The Dalek Invasion of Earth?
 * Who were Susan's parents, and why did they let her travel with her grandfather?
 * Why did the Doctor choose 1963 London as a place to settle down?
 * What became of Susan and Ian after they stopped traveling with the Doctor?
 * Did Susan actually marry and stay in 2164 London the rest of her life?

Whatever happened to canon?
Although the questions were firmly rooted in events that happened — or rather didn't happen — within Susan's time on Doctor Who, many of the answers given strayed from facts established in televised episodes. Humour was seen as preferable to fidelity to the programme's history. Also, as the show was written around 1994, not all of the Hartnell era would have been available on home video. Thus there is the legitimate question of whether

Humour, and not faithfulness to canon, was generally preferred

Cast
Due to the way in which the credits were read at the end of the piece, only three parts can be absolutely confirmed. The remaining parts of Jo Grant, Barbara Wright, Temmosus Skyedron, Joey Oxford and the researcher were played by June Barry, Eva Haddon, Andrew Sachs, Peter Woodthorpe and Becky Harrison.
 * Susan Foreman - Jane Asher
 * Ian Chesterton - James Grout
 * Claire Rayner - herself

Releases

 * It is available as a feature on the BBC Video DVD release of DW: The Dalek Invasion of Earth.
 * It is also included on the CD BBCR: Doctor Who at the BBC Volume 3.
 * It has been periodically rebroadcast on BBC Radio since its initial release. Its most recent airing was on Radio 7 in February 2010.