UWE Alumni and the Raggedy Doctor
During the lockdown, one of our alumni has been working with BBC’s Doctor Who. Sophie has been creating illustrations for new content based around Doctor Who characters. This premiered online as part of ‘tweet-a-long’ set up by Emily Cook, a fan who wanted to bring Doctor Who fans together during this difficult period.
The Raggedy Doctor, written by Steven Moffatt was voiced by the original actress who played the lead child character, Amelia Pond, where she talked about her life and her run-in with the new Doctor at the time, Matt Smith. Sophie Iles, a writer, and artist, and a UWE’s Animation graduate from 9 years ago were asked to illustrate it.
We asked Sophie about the experience of being at UWE.
“I always felt like story, film, and illustration was my passion, so animation felt like the right fit. UWE was based in Bristol, just far enough from home, a bustling town surrounded by green spaces. It was also the home of Aardman and I had heard amazing things about the course. I felt pretty lucky to get on it at all!”
Since then, she’s now known online as a big Doctor Who fan, creating fan illustrations and creating professional works – which led her to work on the Raggedy Doctor Project.
“I’m a big Doctor Who fan, and have written professionally for Doctor Who Magazine and professional works for Big Finish Productions so I’m well known in fan circles. I was approached by the organiser of the tweet-a-longs Emily Cook to create some illustrations for a story ex showrunner Steven Moffat had created to celebrate some of his characters. How could I say no?
The turnaround was tight, even in normal circumstances.
“I had less than 24 hours on my end to draw the illustrations to get to the editor and it was pretty intense! I was asked on Wednesday night, and by Friday it was all over the internet!”
The Raggedy Doctor can be found here:
We asked Sophie about what’s next for her.
“I’m primarily a writer, something I fell in love with when learning about storytelling at UWE, so whilst I draw, I have professional work coming up for short form stories and a few other surprises! But that’s as much as I can say for now.”
Sophie can be found on her website, at @sophieilestweets on twitter and @sophieilesart on Facebook and Instagram
