Katy Manning Catherine Katy Ann Manning ( born on 14 October 1949 in Guildford , Surrey , England ) played companion Jo Grant in " Doctor Who " beginning with " Terror of the Autons " and ending with " The Green Death " . She has also provided the voice for Iris Wildthyme in several of the Big Finish Productions audio dramas , and made many theatre appearances . Manning is famously short - sighted . A story regarding Manning ' s short - sightedness is often related about " Terror of the Autons " , her first " Doctor Who " story . Manning had not informed anyone of her limited vision , and the script called for her and Jon Pertwee to run across a field . Manning ran straight into a tree , and knocked herself unconscious . From then on , whenever a story called for the Doctor and Jo to run across quarries or down corridors , Jon Pertwee could be seen leading Manning by the hand . She played the part of Jo from 1971 to 1973 alongside Jon Pertwee ' s Doctor . Manning struck up an immediate rapport with her co - stars , Pertwee , Nicholas Courtney ( the Brigadier ) , John Levene ( Sergeant Benton ) , Richard Franklin ( Captain Yates ) and Roger Delgado ( the Master ) . Fans of " Doctor Who " often refer to these characters as the UNIT family ( UNIT being the fictional United Nations squad that the Doctor worked for ) and Katy has very fond memories of this period of her life . In 1975 , she married , but that marriage lasted only two months . She gave birth to twins in 1978 with . In 1977 , she posed naked with an original Dalek prop for the glamour magazine " Girl Illustrated " . She laughed the furor off , stating , " You ' d have to pretty well put me under a microscope to see anything ! " Upon being informed of the photos , Jon Pertwee was quoted as saying , " Typical Katy ! " In a later interview , she stated that the nude pictorial " went over like a cup of cold sick . " Katy Manning appeared on stage in Australia when she appeared in the play , during 1987 - 1988 . The production toured the country . Other members of the cast were , and . Manning also appeared as herself in the documentary " Where on Earth is Katy Manning . . . Because She ' d Really Like to Know ! " Katy ' s connection with " Doctor Who " has continued in recent years ; she is also the voice of Iris Wildthyme in several of the Big Finish Productions Doctor Who Audio Dramas and the star of same company ' s Iris Wildthyme series . Katy ' s portayal of Iris has since appeared in over 90 short stories published by Obverse Books and on the covers of most of their " Iris Wildthyme " anthologies . She has also reprised the role of Jo Grant for Big Finish ' s " The Companion Chronicles " series . In " Find and Replace " and " The Elixir of Doom " , she played the dual roles of Jo Grant and Iris Wildthyme , and in " Ghost in the Machine " , Manning voiced the Third Doctor when he and Jo switch bodies . She also read several " Short Trips " , voiced Magistrix Borusa in " Gallifrey " audio story " Annihilation " and appeared in the last " The Lost Stories " audio . Manning performed the role of Jo Grant for the first time on television since 1973 in " Death of the Doctor " , an episode of " The Sarah Jane Adventures " , alongside fellow former Third Doctor companion Elisabeth Sladen playing Sarah Jane Smith and Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor . In 2013 she appeared in the 50th anniversary story " The Five ( ish ) Doctors Reboot " , voiced Gilda Fairbanks in the Bafflegab Productions audio story " " , and also contributed to the charity reference book " " . In 2015 she voiced Jo Grant in " The Defectors " alongside Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor and in " The Third Doctor Adventures " featuring Tim Treloar as the Third Doctor . Writing . Though most of her experience with the DWU has been as an actor , she ' s had a limited amount of writing experience in the franchise . In 2001 , she wrote the foreword for the Telos novella , " Nightdreamers " and , in 2009 , she contributed an introduction to the short story collection " Iris Wildthyme and the Celestial Omnibus " from Obverse Books . Credits . Audio dramas . Iris Wildthyme . As Iris Wildthyme