Sophie Aldred

Sophie Aldred (Born August 20, 1962) portrayed Minnie the Mini Magician in Zzzap between 1999-2001. Her character replaced Neil Buchanan.

Before Zzzap, Sophie was mainly known as The Seventh Doctor's companion Ace in Doctor Who (1987-1989) and did several children's programmes for the BBC such as Blue Peter, Words and Pictures, Melvin and Maureen's Music-a-grams and Corners. Other companies such as TCC and The Media Merchants used Sophie to present- two of the latter include It's A Mystery and WOW!

Between takes recording Series 8-10 of Zzzap, she took care of her baby son and then went back to being eccentric and energetic for the programme. She enjoyed Zzzap but no doubt it tired her out!

Sophie came to the programme at regrettably a bad time- the ratings were slipping and changes made it slide further. Minnie was harshly criticized by fans of Arty for being unlikable and latterly was claimed to be one of the main reasons the series got axed in 2001.

In actual fact- the move to “modern” CGI graphics (which Neil Buchanan and Tim Edmunds turned a blind eye to, considering they had nothing to do with the show at that point despite being credited as “series producers”) was the final straw and CITV cancelled it.

Sophie still managed to get acting work- albeit mainly in children's television- after Zzzap finished.

Most of her roles now consist of voicing cartoons like Dennis and Gnasher & Tree Fu Tom, but frequently she is seen making a visual appearance on Doctor Who DVD Documentaries and at science-fiction conventions around the world.