Bonnie Langford begins our interview with an absolute power move. When she's quizzed about her first TV memories, she immediately asks: "Shows I watched, or shows I appeared on?"
"I don't know that I ever [fell in love with performing], because I don't think I ever understood anything other than that," Langford tells RT.
"I think that has always been why I've continued for so long, because I didn't want to lose that environment. What goes on around it can be pretty awful and sometimes that's quite challenging. But I didn't want to give up that safe place."
It's nothing short of astonishing that Langford, now 61, still sees performing as a safe space considering how she was cruelly torn down in her younger years by the press, the public and even some of her peers. It's not hard to see the impact that still has on her, but also how she's classily risen above it.
Langford never watched Doctor Who as a child ("It was too terrifying!") so her first real experience with it was when she ran into legendary producer John Nathan-Turner, who would later offer her the role of computer programmer Melanie Bush, alongside Colin Baker's and Sylvester McCoy's Sixth and Seventh Doctors.
"It was interesting as well, because most of the time people who played the assistants, it was very early on in their careers, and certainly in their TV careers. So it was unusual to have a companion who had a profile.
Langford adds: "I have my views about my own performance in it... I was in a very different place in my life, but I was very earnest and very keen to do 100 per cent of my job, even if it didn't feel comfortable to me."
In fairness, there were a lot of factors that contributed to Mel's characterisation. One was an outrageous character description that Langford was given when she was cast – and has recently rediscovered – that expressly described Mel as "irritating". Another was a cast and crew visit to Alton Towers that resulted in Nathan-Turner hearing Langford's impressive scream and including it in almost every episode.
"It was very serious, much more serious than I had expected," she recalls. "And I knew that I came into this difficult situation. Colin was fighting for the show as well as John, and there was a lot of angst, and a lot of notes."
Baker's exit came immediately after The Trial of a Time Lord, with the actor being replaced by McCoy, who Langford had previously worked with on stage. "It was almost like a fresh start for both of us," she recalled. But, after working on one more season, it was time for Langford to leave Doctor Who behind – or so she thought at the time.
"These days, things get cancelled mid-scene. Somebody was telling me the other day that they were filming something in America and the suits walked on the set in the middle of a scene and said, 'That's it. We're not doing any more.' It's terrifying. Or you can be in something for years and years."
As McCoy previously revealed in an interview with RT, it also took some convincing for Langford to actually get a proper exit scene.
"I think I made it a bit schmaltzy, actually, myself, but it was fine. I would have done that differently now as well, but it was nice to at least have some kind of completion. But it did seem funny that she went off with Sabalom Glitz on a shopping ship!"
In 2021, then-showrunner Chris Chibnall was planning The Power of the Doctor, Jodie Whittaker's final episode, which features a tear-jerking scene showing past companions meeting up to chat about their adventures. Naturally, he gave Langford a call – and she jumped at the chance.
"She had such a loyalty to the Doctor. It was really great that I had been able to still be in touch with [Mel], to think, 'I wonder where she's been and what she's done, and how she has kept her connection with the Doctor.' So then when I came to do it in the new TV series, it felt really comfortable to be with her."
Now, Langford says, it was time to do right by Mel.
Langford adds: "One of the things I loved about coming back as Mel as well was being in a different place for myself in my own life. When I first went into the show, everything had to be nice, it had to be pretty, it had to be nice outfits and looking good and all that sort of thing.
"I loved all that, and I would never have embraced that in the '80s. I was really grateful for that opportunity to turn her around, and also to have turned myself around as an actor, to have embraced something like that."
"It was quite different to how we had filmed it," Langford explains. "We'd filmed it the year before, and I had to pop back and do some extra filming, which I couldn't do with everybody else, which I was really disappointed about. I was in America at the time, and but I was really, really grateful that they included Mel being busy somewhere else."
"We had a long time to shoot, and it was very technical, a lot of it, but we would laugh a lot. I don't think he had any idea what he was letting himself in for. Nobody does, particularly these days, when there's such a lot riding on it.
Next up, Russell Tovey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw will lead the six-episode spin-off The War Between the Land and the Sea, with various returning Doctor Who stars already being confirmed to appear.
When asked if she'll be making an appearance, Langford refuses to answer, saying: "I can't tell you. I can't tell you anything. I'm sworn to secrecy on everything."
"She had a great impact on me, on how to behave, and I would look up to her and emulate her. She was a very genuine, wonderful actress, but also a wonderful human being, and that had a very, very important impact on me," Langford recalls.
"I felt that I had a certain amount of protection. Funny enough, seeing boxes of publicity from my mother's collection, it was quite a tough transition [from child star to adult actress]. It was quite a tough world, and I think I chose to ignore a lot of it. But I loved doing what I did. I loved the job, and that kept me going."
"Embrace it, enjoy it and find your version. There is no right or wrong."
Hence then, the article about bonnie langford i wasn t proud of my work on doctor who until i came back was published today ( ) and is available on Radio Times ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Bonnie Langford: 'I wasn't proud of my work on Doctor Who – until I came back' )
Also on site :