Catherine Ann Manning born 14 October [ 1 ] [ 2 ] is a British actress. Although she has made many appearances on both screen and stage, Manning is best known for her part as the companion Jo Grant in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. Manning initially played the role regularly from to but also reprised the role in the Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures in Moving to Australia in , Manning continued her career before moving to Los Angeles in the s and then returning to Australia.
Since , Manning has been in a relationship with Australian entertainer and singer Barry Crocker and is now an Australian citizen.
She spent her early years in Dulwich Village. Manning was severely myopic , but teachers failed to understand her condition and she was teased by the other children for having poor eyesight and wearing large glasses. As a teenager, she became a model for Biba. Aged sixteen, Manning suffered serious injuries in a car crash after the driver, her boyfriend Brian Gascoigne brother of Bamber Gascoigne , fell asleep at the wheel.
The car, which had no seatbelts, went over a roundabout and crashed into a garage. Manning was thrown through the windscreen and through a plate glass window ending up on the bonnet of the car, leaving her back and both her legs broken and her face disfigured. She was taken to hospital in the police car as it was thought that she would not survive the time for an ambulance to arrive.
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 US to stay with her sister to recover, and later on 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 fulfilling a film in her contract.
