15 Doctor Who Actors Who Died In 2021

8. Judy Norman

Helen Mccroy Doctor Who
BBC

Opening an episode of Doctor Who is a hugely important task - after all, this is where you'll either hook the viewer, or give them a bad first impression.

In the 2007 episode Gridlock, the responsibility of kicking off the story fell on Judy Norman's shoulders, and thankfully, she absolutely nailed it.

Before the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones enter the fray, our first taste of this episode is a short scene featuring two characters called Ma and Pa, who are killed by the Macra after lying about the number of passengers in their car.

At this point, us viewers don't yet know what sort of creature is lurking in the darkness, and Norman - as Ma - does an admirable job of making this unknown monster seem terrifying.

She passed away on 1 April, at 71 years of age.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.