She also made regular guest appearances on the main television series, and provided voice-over commentaries for its releases to DVD. The show earned the Royal Television Society 2010 award for Best Children's Drama. She returned to the public eye in the 2000s with more Doctor Who related appearances, which culminated in taking a regular lead role in The Sarah Jane Adventures. She subsequently starred in other roles on both television and radio, before semi-retiring to bring up a family in the mid-1980s.

She stayed as a regular cast member alongside Pertwee and Baker until 1976. She moved to London in 1970 and an appearance in the police drama Z-Cars led to her being selected for a part in Doctor Who. Afghanistan, Algeria, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Asia, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde Islands, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Gabon Republic, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, Italy, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Micronesia, Middle East, Moldova, Montenegro, Montserrat, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, Republic of the Congo, Reunion, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts-Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South America, South East Asia, Spain, Swaziland, Switzerland, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turks and Caicos Islands, Uganda, Ukraine, Virgin Islands (U.S.Sladen was interested in ballet and theatre from childhood, and began to appear on stage in the mid-1960s, although more often as a stage manager at this time.

Elisabeth sladen autobiography