Sarah Jill "Lalla" Ward[1] (born 28 June 1951)[2] is an English actress, voice artist and author.

[4]Ward began her acting career in the Hammer horror film Vampire Circus (1972), and played Lottie, the teenage daughter of Louisa Trotter (Gemma Jones) in The Duchess of Duke Street, the BBC drama series of the mid-1970s.

Her television work included The Upper Crusts (1973) as the daughter of Margaret Leighton and Charles Gray, Van der Valk (1973), The Protectors (1973), Quiller (1975), Who Pays the Ferryman?

After a guest appearance as Princess Astra in the Doctor Who story The Armageddon Factor in 1979, Ward was chosen to replace Mary Tamm, who had decided against continuing in the role.

[7] However, she has since reprised the character of Romana in the 1993 charity special Dimensions in Time, the 2003 webcast version of Shada, and in several Doctor Who and Gallifrey audio plays produced by Big Finish Productions.

[13] Ward has recorded audio books, including Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct and Shada by Gareth Roberts and Douglas Adams.

She co-narrated The Selfish Gene, The Ancestor's Tale, The God Delusion, The Blind Watchmaker and The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution with her then husband.

[17] In 2009, at the suggestion of the Gerald Durrell Foundation, she prepared an exhibition of textiles and ceramics on the theme of Galapagos wildlife.

She also used one glass case to recreate her workspace, including such sources of inspiration as music, quotes, and a photo of her dog.

[22]Ward said in 2004 that her long friendship with Douglas Adams, with whom she worked on Doctor Who, meant more to her and was "more valuable and more enduring" than her marriage to Baker.

[7] In 1992, at his 40th birthday party, Adams introduced her to his friend Richard Dawkins, the biologist and author of books including The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker and The God Delusion.

Her great-grandmother Mary Ward was an Anglo-Irish illustrator and amateur scientist, documented as the first person in the world to die in a motor vehicle accident.