Bonnie Langford

Bonita Melody Lysette Langford (born 22 July 1964), known simply as Bonnie Langford, is an English actress, dancer and entertainer. She came to prominence as a child star in the early 1970s before subsequently becoming well known for her role as Mel Bush, a companion of Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy's Doctor in the BBC series Doctor Who in the mid 1980s. She has since appeared on stage in various musicals in the West End and on Broadway, shows such as Peter Pan, Cats, The Pirates of Penzance and Chicago, and more recently on TV in series 1 (2006) & series 9 (2014) of the reality competition programme Dancing on Ice. As of 26 May 2015 she has been a regular cast member in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders as Carmel Kazemi. For her role in the show she has received the 2016 British Soap Award for Best Newcomer. 2Early life Bonnie Langford attended the Arts Educational School, St Catherine's School, Twickenham and the Italia Conti Academy stage school. Her first stage appearance was at four months, and her first public appearance was at 15 months when she danced in specially-made ballet shoes. 2Public attention She first came to public attention when, aged six years old, she won the talent show Opportunity Knocks. This led to early fame in the television series Just William (playing Violet Elizabeth Bott), the 1974 Broadway revival of Gypsy starring Angela Lansbury, the 1976 film Bugsy Malone, and the 1977 film Wombling Free. During this time, she was appearing as a regular on a children's prime-time show made by Yorkshire Television called Junior Showtime, along with child stars Lena Zavaroni, Neil Reed and Glynn Poole among other