Doctor Who’s Bonnie Langford reacts to Mel’s unseen and outrageous original description

Doctor Who legend Bonnie Langford has revealed her thoughts on the absolutely outrageous description she was given for her character Mel when she was first cast in the show's original run.

Langford joined the cast of Doctor Who as companion Melanie Bush, a computer programmer, in 1986. While she departed the following year, she returned in recent seasons of the show alongside Jodie Whittaker and Ncuti Gatwa's Doctors.

As part of an in-depth interview with Radio Times, Langford recalled being cast in the series by then-producer, the legendary John Nathan-Turner, who gave her a two-page description of the character when they first met, which she recently read for the first time in years.

Looking back at that description now, Langford is scandalised by some of the details – most of all, by the idea that Mel would sing in the TARDIS (which never happened in the show), and that she would pester the Doctor (then played by Colin Baker) about losing weight.

"Melanie is scintillating, fascinating and irritating," Langford reads. "She has a mane of red hair, fierce blue eyes – which I don't have - and freckles – which I don't really have.

"She's 21 years old and a computer programmer from Pease Pottage…there's some of it I probably can't read to you because it says 'strictly confidential'.

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Allons-y!

"Oh, okay, she is heavily into aerobics and health food. You see, that was very much of the time. It was all Jane Fonda. She would probably be a vegan now, wouldn't she?

"Oh, here we go. She considers the Doctor overweight and in need of regular Jane Fonda-type movement lessons, although the Doctor insists he gets quite enough exercise, dashing around the galaxy, defeating evil. She often attempts to force health-giving vitamin enriched food to the Doctor, muesli, raw carrots, etc, which may provide useful comedy relief.

"It goes on. It says she's got a sense of humour, so that's good. And she's often heard singing in the TARDIS. Thank goodness she didn't have to do any singing. I think I might have put my foot down at that!"

Before that meeting – and, indeed, before being cast as Mel – Langford had never seen an episode of Doctor Who, admitting she "went in very blindly".

"I enjoyed it tremendously. I had a good time doing it. But I think were I to take it on now I would probably focus on it slightly differently," she explains.

"I had no idea of the impact. 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 who had a profile.

"But at that point, the show was going through a lot of difficulty. John adored it and was fighting for its survival. And I have a feeling that I was brought into it because I was getting a lot of column inches at that time with publicity, and he knew that it would have an impact on that side of it."

She admits: "I have my views about my own performance in it, because I've been forced to see it since..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.

"I had absolutely no idea that I would still be talking about Doctor Who all these years later. It's such a gift that keeps on giving."

Bonnie Langford's full interview will be available on RadioTimes.com on 18th November.

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