Where Are They Now? - No.3 Bonnie Langford

Bonita Melody Lysette "Bonnie" Langford (Born 22nd July 1964) is an English actress and entertainer. She came to prominence as a child star in the early 1970's.

Langford attended The Arts Educational School 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. She first came to public attention when, aged 6, she won the talent show Opportunity Knocks. This led to early fame in the television series Just William, the 1976 film Bugsy Malone and the 1977 film Wombling Free. At this time, she was associated with fellow child star Lena Zavaroni.

Between 1986 and 1987 Langford played the role of Mel, companion to both the Sixth and Seventh Doctors in the BBC1 series Doctor Who.

She returned to the role in 1993 for Dimensions in Time, a special charity Doctor Who/EastEnders crossover episode as part of BBC's Children in Need. She continues to reprise the role in audio adventures produced by Big Finish Productions (eleven to date, including the episodes "The One Doctor and "The Firs Of Vulcan").

In 2006, Langford was a celebrity contestant in the first series of ITV's Dancing on Ice, partnering professional figure skater Matt Evers. Their routines were characterised by the dramatic lifts and tricks they performed and were amongst the most ambitious in the competitions. Viewers saw Langford bang her head as she was spun on the ice during rehearsals, illustrating the danger of some of the moves they were attempting. Their appearances were also notable for the differing reception they received from the panel of judges (which consistently voted them highly, awarding them the highest total scores and the only two maximum scores from individual judges) and the voting public (who twice placed them in the bottom two pairs, forcing a "skate off" to remain in the competition). They finished in third place overall.

Langford and Evers appeared again on the programme in the one-off Champion of Champions show which followed series two. They were scored second overall by the judging panel but again the public vote was less favourable and they were amongst the four teams eliminated in the first round of the competition. Langford then toured with Torvill & Dean's Dancing On Ice Live in 2007, a series of 42 shows in which she was the winner 27 times.

Langford took part in the 2008 tour which started in April 2008. Teamed with new skating partner Pavel Aubrecht she again impressed the judges & fans with two new superb routines however the competition was extremely high with many of the celebrities winning the shows & in the end Bonnie won 4 of the show.

Dancing On Ice has sparked a regeneration in her career. She returned to the West End theatre in April 2006 (for the first time since 1998) playing the murderess Roxie Hart in the long-running West End musical Chicago and again in Dec 2007-Feb 2008 in the same role, also in 2006-7 she appeared in the Birmingham and Plymouth tours of Guys & Dolls playing Miss Adelaide Adams, a dance hall hostess. Starting in 2006 she has also been touring with Sandi Toksvig in a two-woman theatrical show called Short and Curly

She has also made a number of guest appearances on television, including Agatha Christie's 'Miss Marple' on ITV (playing Betty Johnson alongside Brian Conley in the episode By the pricking of my thumbs, February 2006), The Catherine Tate Show (late 2006), Supermarket Sweep with Dale Winton (February 2007) and the children's programme Hider in the House (March 2007).

In July 2007 she was a judge on the ITV series Baby Ballroom: The Championship. Starting on 16 February 2008, Bonnie was 1 of 5 celebrities making up team Ant for there new team game Ant versus Dec in Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway.She survived right up until the final edition, reaching the semi final stage & just missing out on the final which was eventually won by team Dec.

http://www.bonnielangford.co.uk/