Goodbye Romana 1

Yet another Doctor Who companion actress has now left us, this time Mary Tamm who played the original Romana before Lalla Ward (no relation!) took over the part after a regeneration.

We had already lost Elisabeth Sladen and Caroline John, and now a third has gone.

Mary was just a few months younger than I am, and had been battling the dreaded cancer for a year and a half.

It is such a sad thing that this ghastly affliction is still able to take so many people away from us before one would have thought was their natural time to depart this world.

Okay, Mary's Romana wasn't one of my favourite Who companions, but that doesn't make this loss easy to bear, though I accept it could have been more painful if one of my favourites were to be taken in this way.

Anyway, there it is, so goodbye to Romanadvoratrelundar (and not forgetting all her other parts in various productions). It is a mark of some significance that so many remember her so well, and obituaries and tributes are already popping up in various places in significant numbers.