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Doctor Who has changed my life, says Freema Agyeman

By David Bentley on Nov 27, 08 10:48 AM

ACTRESS Freema Agyeman says her role as the Time Lord's former companion Martha Jones in hit show Doctor Show was the lucky break that has transformed her life.

Freema, 29, said: "I owe a lot to Doctor Who. Before it, I was doing okay but then it came along and, I guess, turned me into a household name and took my career to a whole new level."

She admits that before landing the role of companion to David Tennant's Doctor, there were moments when she wondered whether or not to continue with acting.

"I went through a stage where I don't think I'd auditioned for a year-and-a-half, and I started to think 'If this doesn't work out, what else could I do?'," she recalls.

"I never reached the point where I thought I'm going to have to pack it in, but I did start to wonder how long I should keep trying for.

"I never thought things would happen for me the way they did - one job coming along and changing everything so dramatically."

Her biggest stroke of luck was landing a small role in one episode of Doctor Who, bringing her to the attention of executive producer Russell T Davies.

"I probably had six lines, but it's all about doing the best you possibly can with what you're given, and then you just do not know where it might lead.

"I always used to think that, but now I live by it. Whatever you're asked to do, do it to the best of your abilities. It was that small part which started this whole journey.

"I feel like I'm now getting opportunities I might not have had before, that the barriers are falling, and I completely feel that doing Doctor Who has put me in that situation," she says.

"My life has changed a lot in the last two years in ways I could never have imagined, and one of the things that does is hold a massive mirror in front of you. "It can be difficult, but it's good."

Freema appeared as a primary school teacher in the new BBC remake Survivors, about the aftermath of a virus which wipes out most of the world's population, and is also in the BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit.

http://blogs.coventrytelegraph.net/thegeekfiles/2008/11/doctor-who-has-changed-my-life.html