[Afamilyatwar-list] Shelagh Fraser

[Scott Filderman]

When a major character absolutely departs (i.e., dies) a series, my observer part registers the appropriate emotion, but my cynical part wonders if the performer simply wanted to leave the project. When Mrs. Ashton died at the end of Series Two, I was sad to see the character suffer such an end. Then I thought, well, Patrick Troughton had just come off Doctor Who because he didn’t want to be stuck with that character. Was Mrs. Ashton “eliminated” because of effective story-telling, or did the actress want to move on? Her acting was, as the term goes, “absolutely smashing”! Then she pops up in Star Wars....hmmmmmm.

Scott Filderman 

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