<\/p>
Kids and grown-ups loved it so, the wonderful Doctor Who spinoff that was The Sarah Jane Adventures. And now, speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com<\/a> to celebrate the series\u2019 15th anniversary, one of the show\u2019s producers has explained why \u2013 in his opinion \u2013 it became such a demographic-spanning hit.<\/p>\n Premiering in 2007 and running for five series before wrapping up in 2011, The Sarah Jane Adventures (SJA) was created by Doctor Who\u2019s then-showrunner, the fan favourite Russell T Davies. From the second series onwards, Phil Ford was the head writer and co-producer on the Elisabeth Sladen-starring show.<\/p>\n Speaking to RadioTimes.com for our RT Rewind retrospective<\/a> on The Sarah Jane Adventures, Ford summed up the show\u2019s broad appeal like so: \u201cRussell always was of the opinion there was really no story that you couldn\u2019t tell kids, as long as you told it in the in the correct way.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe never really pulled our punches so much on The Sarah Jane Adventures,\u201d Ford added, \u201cand I think that\u2019s one of the things that made it such a big hit with kids and with their parents as well.\u201d Essentially, then, the show\u2019s ability to tell bold stories in an unfiltered way \u2013 even stories with hard-hitting, real-life topics \u2013 gave the series a resonance that appealed across numerous age groups.<\/p> Ford elaborated on that point with a specific example from one of his episodes: \u201cIn The Eye of the Gorgon [Ford\u2019s first script for the series], a lot of it is about a woman who has dementia. I remember, very early on, Russell talking about the responsibility that we had, because there would be kids who would have grandparents who were going through the same thing.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to magically take that away from her through the sci-fi story: it was important to Russell and to us that we were true to the condition. We didn\u2019t want to tell kids, \u2018It\u2019s okay, because your grandparents who are suffering awful conditions could be magically made well again\u2019. Telling mature stories and finding the truth was something that we tried to do all the way through.\u201d<\/p>\n Another prime example of an SJA episode that tackled a big topic in an emotional way, The Curse of Clyde Langer is still remembered for its unflinching representation of real-life homelessness. It was another bold script for a family-friendly production.<\/p>\n Bolstered by brilliant performances from the late, great Elisabeth Sladen and her co-stars, those brave scripts helped make The Sarah Jane Adventures a series that fans are still celebrating to this day.<\/p>\n The Sarah Jane Adventures is available to watch on BritBox<\/a>, and you might have spotted an Easter egg referring to the show in last year\u2019s Doctor Who mobile game, The Lonely Assassins<\/a>. Surely, fans will still be remembering this series in another 15 years!<\/p>\n Plus, with Russell T Davies returning to Doctor Who<\/a>, it\u2019ll be interesting to see if he cooks up any other spin-off series with this kind of broad appeal. Time will tell.<\/p>\n Read our big SJA interview<\/strong>: \u2018We were like a family, and it was beautiful\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n For more, check out our dedicated\u00a0Sci-Fi<\/a>\u00a0page or our full\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Rob Leane Published: Monday, 03 January 2022 at 12:00 am Kids and grown-ups loved it so, the wonderful Doctor Who spinoff that was The Sarah Jane Adventures. And now, speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com to celebrate the series\u2019 15th anniversary, one of the show\u2019s producers has explained why \u2013 in his opinion \u2013 it became […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":9451,"template":"","categories":[5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/01\/doctor-who-spin-off-writer-reveals-what-made-show-a-big-hit.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/01\/doctor-who-spin-off-writer-reveals-what-made-show-a-big-hit-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/01\/doctor-who-spin-off-writer-reveals-what-made-show-a-big-hit-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/01\/doctor-who-spin-off-writer-reveals-what-made-show-a-big-hit.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/01\/doctor-who-spin-off-writer-reveals-what-made-show-a-big-hit.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/01\/doctor-who-spin-off-writer-reveals-what-made-show-a-big-hit.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/01\/doctor-who-spin-off-writer-reveals-what-made-show-a-big-hit.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Rob Leane Published: Monday, 03 January 2022 at 12:00 am Kids and grown-ups loved it so, the wonderful Doctor Who spinoff that was The Sarah Jane Adventures. And now, speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com to celebrate the series\u2019 15th anniversary, one of the show\u2019s producers has explained why \u2013 in his opinion \u2013 it became…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/9450"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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