Sophie Aldred

Sophie Aldred
Birth date:	20 August 1962
Work in the DWU
Main roles:	Dorothy "Ace" McShane
Main jobs:	Actress
Stories:	See Credits Section
Main time period active:	1987-1989 (television), 1999-present (audio)
Career highlights
Notable non-DWU work:	Melvin & Maureen's Musicagrams, Dennis & Gnasher, Pointless Celebrities
Twitter
IMDb profile

Sophie Aldred (born 20 August 1962) portrayed Ace in the original television series from Dragonfire to Survival, and reprised the role for Dimensions in Time and audio stories produced by Big Finish. Aldred also had a part in the 1998 Doctor Who spin-off Mindgame.

She was born in Greenwich, London and raised in Blackheath. She shares her birthday with her co-star, Sylvester McCoy, who is 19 years her senior, and Anthony Ainley.

Biography

Sophie attended Blackheath High School and studied drama at the University of Manchester before embarking on a career in children's theatre. In 1987, while she was working back chorus on Fiddler on the Roof, she was cast as Ace. The Doctor found Ace serving milkshakes on Iceworld in the story Dragonfire, at the end of which she joined the Doctor on his travels. Several stories (Ghost Light, The Curse of Fenric, and Survival) explored her character to an extent that previous companion characters had not seen.

Sophie Aldred in 2008.

Before and since Doctor Who, Aldred has had a varied and busy television career, particularly in children's programming, where she has presented educational programmes such as Corners, Melvin and Maureen's Music-a-grams and the long-running BBC series Words and Pictures. She has performed on radio and in the theatre. She has also reprised her role as Ace in the charity special Dimensions in Time and continues to perform the role in Doctor Who audio plays produced by Big Finish Productions.

She co-wrote the hardback reference book, Ace! The Inside Story of the End of an Era with Mike Tucker, published by Virgin Publishing in 1996. (ISBN 1-85227-574-X). She also edited a special issue of Doctor Who Magazine (Issue 255).

Sophie Aldred and Karen Gillan meet. (VOR 17)

While recording Short Trips - Volume I, Sophie Aldred met Karen Gillan, who was recording audio for an online interactive game. Sophie introducted herself to Karen as "one of the old girls", saying she played Ace. Karen then gasped, and asked Sophie to take a picture with her. Sophie asked Karen to sign her T-shirt, and joked she would never be able to wash it again. (VOR 17)

Beginning in 2012, Aldred provided the lead voice-over role in the animated series Tree Fu Tom; her co-star for the first series was David Tennant.

Sophie Aldred married Vince Henderson on 12 July 1997. They have two sons, Adam and William.

In 2013, Sophie and her co-star Sylvester McCoy partnered up for the Doctor Who edition of the game show Pointless Celebrities. She also contributed to the charity reference book Behind the Sofa: Celebrity Memories of Doctor Who and was interviewed for Chicks Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the Women Who Love It.

Acting Credits

Television

Doctor Who

• Dragonfire
• Remembrance of the Daleks
• The Happiness Patrol
• Silver Nemesis
• The Greatest Show in the Galaxy
• Battlefield
• Ghost Light
• The Curse of Fenric
• Survival

Mini-episodes

• Search Out Space
• Dimensions in Time

Other

• The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot

Direct-to-DVD

• Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans - Mari
• The Zero Imperative - P.R.O.
• Mindgame - "Human"
• Mindgame Trilogy - "Human"
• White Witch of Devil's End (grateful thanks)
• Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor - Mistress Na

Doctor Who Confidential

• I Get a Side-Kick Out of You

Webcasts

Doctor Who

• Death Comes to Time

The Collection Blu-Ray Trailers

• Ace Returns!

Audio

Big Finish Monthly Range

• The Fearmonger
• The Genocide Machine
• The Shadow of the Scourge
• Dust Breeding
• Colditz
• The Rapture
• The Dark Flame
• Zagreus - Captain Duck
• The Harvest
• Dreamtime
• LIVE 34
• Night Thoughts
• The Settling
• No Man's Land
• Nocturne
• The Dark Husband
• Forty-Five
  • False Gods
  • Order of Simplicity
  • Casualties of War
  • The Word Lord
• The Magic Mousetrap
• Enemy of the Daleks
• The Angel of Scutari
• Project: Destiny
• A Death in the Family
• Lurkers at Sunlight's Edge
• Protect and Survive
• Black and White
• Gods and Monsters
• 1963: The Assassination Games
• Afterlife
• Revenge of the Swarm
• Mask of Tragedy
• Signs and Wonders
• You Are the Doctor and Other Stories
  • You Are the Doctor
  • Come Die with Me
  • The Grand Betelgeuse Hotel
  • Dead to the World
• A Life of Crime
• Fiesta of the Damned
• Shadow Planet / World Apart
• The High Price of Parking
• The Blood Furnace
• The Silurian Candidate
• Red Planets
• The Dispossessed
• The Quantum Possibility Engine
• Muse of Fire
• An Alien Werewolf in London
• Dark Universe
• The Flying Dutchman / Displaced
• The Grey Man of the Mountain

Big Finish Special Releases

• The Veiled Leopard
• The Light at the End
• The Eighth of March
  • The Big Blue Book
• The Legacy of Time
  • The Split Infinitive

The Lost Stories

• Thin Ice
• Crime of the Century
• Animal
• Earth Aid

Novel Adaptations

• Love and War
• Theatre of War
• All-Consuming Fire
• Nightshade

Companion Chronicles

• The Prisoner's Dilemma

Destiny of the Doctor

• Shockwave

Short Trips

• Police and Shreeves
• Critical Mass
• The Riparian Ripper
• The Shadow Trader
• Dark Convoy
• Washington Burns
• Doctors and Dragons
• Dead Woman Walking

Gallifrey

• Intervention Earth
• Enemy Lines
• Celestial Intervention
• Soldier Obscura

Bernice Summerfield

• Beyond the Sun - Miranda
• Many Happy Returns - Dave Stone
• Random Ghosts
• The Lights of Skaro
• The Pyramid of Sutekh
• The Vault of Osiris
• The Eye of Horus
• The Tears of Isis

UNIT

• Dominion

Class: The Audio Adventures

• In Remembrance

Iris Wildthyme

• Iris at the Oche - Lady Bow'n

Audiobook readings

• The Greatest Show in the Galaxy
• Illegal Alien
• The Secret in Vault 13
• At Childhood's End
• The Maze of Doom
• The Witchfinders

Puffin eshort

• The Roots of Evil
• Something Borrowed

Time Lord Fairy Tales

• Snow White and the Seven Keys to Doomsday

Twelve Doctors of Christmas

• All I Want for Christmas
• The Grotto
• Loose Wire

Tales of Terror

• The Living Image
• Blood Will Out
• The Mist of Sorrow

Thirteen Doctors, 13 Stories

• Time Lapse

The Wintertime Paradox

• He's Behind You
• Father of the Daleks
• Inflicting Christmas
• For the Girl Who Has Everything
• Visiting Hours
• We Will Feed You to the Trees
• Christmas with the Plasmavores
• A Girl Called Doubt
• A Perfect Christmas
• Missing Habitas Frond
• A Day to Yourselves
• The Paradox Moon

Writing Credits

Prose

Novels

• At Childhood's End (with Mike Tucker and Steve Cole)

Short works

• Timewyrm: Genesys (foreword)
• Set Piece (afterword)

Reference Books

• Ace! The Inside Story of the End of an Era (with Mike Tucker)

Documentaries

• Thirty Years in the TARDIS
• The Doctors: 30 Years of Time Travel and Beyond
• I Was a Doctor Who Monster!
• Lust in Space
• The Story of Doctor Who

External links

• Sophie Aldred at the Internet Movie Database
• Official Twitter account