on the bonnet of the car, leaving back and both her legs broken and her face disfigured. It took nine policemen to retrieve Manning from the wreckage and she later said of her injuries that her "eye and mouth on one side of her face sort of met". Manning was taken to hospital in the police car as they thought she would not survive the time for an ambulance to arrive. She had to spend nearly two years recovering in hospital and had to have her head shaved and several skin grafts on her face, as well as reconstructive surgery at Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead. Manning suffered an embolism and had to have both her legs pinned which put an end to her dreams of becoming a dancer. Manning went to the U.S. to stay with her sister to recover, and was offered a five-year contract with MGM by Arthur Mayer at one of her sister's house parties, although she turned it down in fear of not doing a film in her contract. Inspired by this, upon her return to the UK, Manning trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, and then joined a Wolverhampton repertory company. Her first screen credit was in an egg commercial which also starred Jacqueline Bisset. Manning then made her TV debut in the BBC drama Softly, Softly: Taskforce, in the episode 'Standing Orders'. Shortly after, she was seen in two episodes playing Julia Dungarvon in ITV's Man At The Top. Manning was originally given the small role of a French au-pair girl for one episode, however during filming the producers, impressed with Manning's performance, instead gave her a larger role in two episodes. Career Doctor Who She played the part of Jo Grant from 1971 to 1973 alongside Jon Pertwee's incarnation of the Doctor. Manning struck up an immediate rapport with her co-stars Pertwee, Nicholas Courtney (The Brigadier), John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Richard Franklin (Captain Mike Yates) and Roger Delgado (the Master). Fans of Doctor Who often refer to these characters as the UNIT family — UNIT, the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, being the fictional United Nations organisation that the Doctor worked for. Manning is the only surviving companion from Pertwee's era. Making her debut in the episode Terror of the Autons, the character of Jo Grant instantly became liked by audiences to the extent that she is often thought