Line #4 Creator/AnnekeWills


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/anneke_7.jpg]]
2	Anneke Wills (born 20 October 1941) is an English actress. She is best known for playing Series/DoctorWho companion Polly from 1966-67, alongside Creator/WilliamHartnell's First and Creator/PatrickTroughton's Second Doctors. She joined the show in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E10TheWarMachines The War Machines]]" and left in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E8TheFacelessOnes The Facless Ones]]". She also had a starring role as Evelyn [=McClean=] on ''Series/StrangeReport'' in 1969-70.
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4	Wills began her acting career in 1954, aged just 13. Early appearances included Roberta in the 1957 TV adaptation of Literature/TheRailwayChildren, and two episodes of the cult classic ''[[Creator/AnthonyNewley The Strange World of Gurney Slade]]'' in 1960. In the mid-1960s she made multiple guest appearances in the enduringly popular Creator/{{ITV}} shows ''Series/{{The Avengers\|1960s}}'' and ''Series/TheSaint.''
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6	In 1962, Wills married to Creator/MichaelGough, who would later find fame as [[Film/Batman1989 Alfred Pennyworth]]. They would divorce in 1979 after 17 years of marriage.
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8	Wills made her debut as companion Polly in Series/DoctorWho in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E10TheWarMachines The War Machines]]", the final story of Season 3. She joined the show at the same time as Creator/MichaelCraze as fellow companion Ben Jackson. Their characters were both young Londoners from 1966, designed to capture the mood of the Swinging Sixties and appeal more to contemporary audiences than previous companions had done. Their characters sometimes clashed onscreen, but Wills and Craze would form a lifelong friendship.
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10	Creator/WilliamHartnell was nearing the end of his tenure as the Doctor, with growing health and memory problems making it impossible for him to continue playing the role. Two serials later, Hartnell regenerated into Creator/PatrickTroughton, with Wills as Polly and Craze as Ben therefore going down in history as the first companions to witness a regeneration on the show.
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12	Two stories into Troughton's tenure, Creator/FrazerHines was introduced as new companion Jamie [=McCrimmon=]. His presence led to the production team deciding that Ben was redundant and writing him out of the show after one year. Wills was offered the chance to stay on as Polly, but she opted to leave at the same time as Creator/MichaelCraze, so Ben and Polly departed the show together one year after they had joined it together.
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14	A starring role as Evelyn [=McClean=] on ''Series/StrangeReport'', a crime drama series produced by Creator/ITCEntertainment, soon followed, but Wills opted to quit the show after one season, unwilling to relocate from London to the United States as the show had planned to do.
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16	Wills left acting thereafter to dedicate herself to motherhood and gardening. In 1980, after her divorce, she left the UK and spent the next decade-and-a-half living in a wide variety of places including Belgium, Laos, Vietnam, India, the USA and Canada, before returning to Britain in the mid-1990s.
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18	Decades after leaving the role on television, Wills has reprised her role as Polly in audio form for Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho from 2009 onwards. She has also been called upon to provide linking narration for the audio releases of the soundtracks to many of the [[MissingEpisode/DoctorWho missing episodes]] in which she appeared. Unfortunately, her time on the show was one of the hardest hit by the BBC archive purges of the 1960s and 1970s, and today only 12 of the 36 episodes in which she appeared still exist in the archives.
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20	!! Her roles include:
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22	[[AC:Television]]
23	* ''Series/{{The Avengers\|1960s}}'' episodes:
24	** "Dressed to Kill" (1963) -- Pussy Cat
25	** "The £50,000 Breakfast" (1967) -- Judy
26	* ''Series/TheLikelyLads'', episode "Other Side of the Fence" (1965) -- Judith Francis
27	* ''Series/TheSaint'', episode "The Helpful Pirate" (1966) -- Fran Roeding
28	* ''Series/DoctorWho'', 36 episodes [=/=] 9 stories[[labelnote:show list]]"[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E10TheWarMachines The War Machines]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E1TheSmugglers The Smugglers]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E2TheTenthPlanet The Tenth Planet]]" , "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E3ThePowerOfTheDaleks The Power of the Daleks]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E4TheHighlanders The Highlanders]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E5TheUnderwaterMenace The Underwater Menace]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E6TheMoonbase The Moonbase]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E7TheMacraTerror The Macra Terror]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E8TheFacelessOnes The Faceless Ones]]"[[/labelnote]] (1966-67) -- Polly
29	* ''Series/StrangeReport'', 16 episodes (1969-70) -- Evelyn [=McLean=]
30	* ''Film/AnAdventureInSpaceAndTime'' (2013) - Party Guest (cameo)
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32	[[AC:Audio Play]]
33	* ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' stories:
34	** ''Bernice Summerfield'': "[[Recap/BigFinishBSS1E2BeyondTheSun Beyond the Sun]]" (1998) -- Doctor Kitzinger
35	** ''Doctor Who Main Range'': "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho037TheSandman The Sandman]]" (2002) -- Nrosha
36	** 3 ''Doctor Who Main Range'' stories[[labelnote:show list]]"[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho050Zagreus Zagreus]]", "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho064TheNextLife The Next Life]]", "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho088MemoryLane Memory Lane]]"[[/labelnote]] (2003-06) -- Lady Louisa Pollard
37	** 10 ''The Companion Chronicles'' stories [[labelnote:show list]]"[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoCCS3E9Resistance Resistance]]", "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoCCS5E9TheForbiddenTime The Forbidden Time]]", "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoCCSSpecialsTheThreeCompanions The Three Companions]]", "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoCCS6E8TheSelachianGambit The Selachian Gambit]]", "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoCCS7E8TheHouseOfCards The House of Cards]]", "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoCCS10E1TheMouthlessDead The Mouthless Dead]]", "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoCCS11E3BonfiresOfTheVanities Bonfires of the Vanities]]", "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoCCS11E4ThePlagueOfDreams The Plague of Dreams]]", "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoCCS12E1TheCuratorsEgg The Curator's Egg]]", "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoCCS13E4TheCrumblingMagician The Crumbling Magician]]"[[/labelnote]] (2009-19) -- Polly Wright and various other characters
38	** 2 ''Special Releases'' stories[[labelnote:show list]]"[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoSpecialsTheFiveCompanions The Five Companions]]", "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoSpecialsTheLightAtTheEnd The Light At The End]]"[[/labelnote]] (2011-13) -- Polly Wright
39	** ''Charlotte Pollard'': "[[Recap/BigFinishCPS1E3TheFallOfTheHouseOfPollard The Fall of the House of Pollard]]" (2014) -- Lady Louisa Pollard
40	** 6 ''The Early Adventures'' stories [[labelnote:show list]]"[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoTEAS2E1TheYesMen The Yes Men]]", "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoTEAS2E2TheForsaken The Forsaken]]", "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoTEAS4E1TheNightWitches The Night Witches]]", "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoTEAS4E2TheOutliers The Outliers]]", "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoTEAS4E3TheMortonLegacy The Morton Legacy]]", "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoTEAS6E1TheHomeGuard The Home Guard]]"[[/labelnote]] (2015-19) -- Polly Wright[=/=]Narrator
41	** 2 ''Short Trips'' stories[[labelnote:show list]]"[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoShortTripsS6E6LostAndFound Lost and Found]]", "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoShortTripsS7E5Falling Falling]]"[[/labelnote]] (2016-17) -- Polly Wright
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43	!!Tropes related to her career include:
44	* ActorInspiredElement: Wills wore her own clothes on ''Series/DoctorWho'' and ''Series/StrangeReport''.
45	* StageName: She was born Anna Katarina Willys. Early in her career, she was credited first as "Anneke Willys" (1954-58), then as "Annika Wills" (1959-63), before settling on "Anneke Wills" from 1964 onwards.
46	* YouSoundFamiliar: In addition to reprising her role as Polly for Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho, she has also voiced Director Nrosha and Lady Louisa Pollard.
47	* WhatCouldHaveBeen: She was considered for the role of original ''Series/DoctorWho'' companion Susan Foreman in 1963, which eventually went to Creator/CaroleAnnFord.

Context Creator / AnnekeWills