Bonnie Langford (Mel) and Sylvestor McCoy, taken from Delta and the Bannermen.

A more recent image of Bonnie Langford.

Mel comes from Pease Pottage, and is a computer programmer. Mel is a somewhat complex character to explain. First is her history, which is covoluted with the events in Trial of a Time Lord, and is virtually impossible to understand. Her first encounter with the Doctor was never shown on TV, yet in Trial, she has met the Doctor, although the Doctor has yet to meet her. He nevertheless goes off with her, and she remains with the Doctor when he regenerates. Next is the character. Mel is very honest and looks for the best in people, as shown when she went off the Sabalom Glitz. She also has "a memory like an elephant" (6th Doctor), and is good at detective work. However, in the McCoy era she was portrayed simply as a screamer, which undermined all this. The audio adventure Fires of Vulcan, went some way to undo this though, and thus restore the original Mel.

Mel was a terrible companion. Whilst we have mellowed out a bit (well I have at least), she was awful. She screamed, and screamed, and screamed, and was of no use at all. Bonnie Langford is very nice, but she had so little input into her character. A dud character for a dud season.

Mel appeared in: The Trial of a Time Lord (Terror of the Vervoids and The Ultimate Foe), Time and the Rani, Paradise Towers, Delta and the Bannermen, Dragonfire, Dimensions in Time.

Bonnie Langford played the role of Mel from 1986 to 1987 However, she is best known for her musicals, of which Cats is the best known. She has also starred in: Gone With the Wind and Pirates of Penzance. On television she has starred in, amongst others, Bugsy Malone and The Hot Shoe Show. She has also had a succesful muscial career, and has just released a new album: Bonnie Langford Now.

Bonnie Langford has also starred in the following Big Finish audio adventures: The Fires of Vulcan.

Information on this page of the website had permission from Bonnie Langford to build. Here is a copy of her e-mail:

Dear Peter, Many thanks for your e-mail. Yes, I have no problem with you using my website, and some of the pictures. But in return would you have a link to my website please. If you want more info on me Alden Bates has a fantastic website about Mel. His website can be found on my links page of my website. Best wishes, Bonnie. www.bonnielangford.co.uk

As you can guess, I am somewhat pleased with this, not to mention the fact that it shows just what a nice person Bonnie Langford is. I only hope this segment of my website does justice to that.

All pictures and information on this page compiled from Bonnie Langford's homepage, the URL is above.

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