Showbiz was a dangerous world in the 70s – Jimmy Savile tried to lure me into his changing room, reveals Bonnie Langford
WITH her big voice and riot of red curls, Bonnie Langford shot to fame, aged six, when she won TV talent show Opportunity Knocks.
But she has now revealed that navigating the world of showbiz as a child star in the 1970s had its share of dangers — with Jimmy Savile one of the biggest.
Bonnie, who will be seen on screen this month reprising one of her classic roles as a Doctor Who companion, worked with evil Savile several times long before he was exposed as a rapist and paedophile after his death in 2011.
In an exclusive chat, the 59-year-old tells The Sun on Sunday: “When I worked on Jim’ll Fix It I remember someone coming in and telling us Jimmy wanted us to visit him in his changing room when we’d finished our number — and I just said no.
“I think I was saved by the constant presence of my parents. They were always around, they were my saviours.
“I was a very intuitive child. I learned how to draw away from certain people I didn’t trust.
“I was lucky in a way because in those days my mother Babette was my chaperone, my protector.
“It’s difficult looking back because there is now this perception that everyone in showbiz in the 1970s was a predator. They weren’t. There were just a few bad apples.
“There are still people in the business today who are less than perfect.
‘I sometimes didn’t like being me’
“I somehow navigated the bad apples. My protective instincts kicked in early.”
Bonnie is now celebrating more than 50 years in showbusiness.
And she still looks back on that early period — including working with Murder, She Wrote star Angela Lansbury — with “great fondness”.
She says: “I cherish those memories and I sometimes get very emotional when I think of the people I worked with, like Angela.”
Bonnie made her Broadway debut opposite the legendary actress, who died last year, in hit musical Gypsy.
She first played Baby June to Angela’s Mama Rose at London’s Piccadilly Theatre in 1973, and it was such a hit that when the show transferred to New York, she went with it.
She recalls: “I was ten years old, so I learned so much from her. It basically set me up for life.
“I never set out to become famous, that was never the plan.
“Showbusiness was very different back then. You didn’t have the whole social media thing and I wasn’t really seen as a big star because I was still a child.”
On Saturday Bonnie will reprise another key role in her long career, playing Doctor Who companion Mel Bush in the 60th anniversary specials on BBC One.
It was the job that allowed the star, then 22, to break free from the child fame tag that had followed her since Opportunity Knocks and her subsequent stint in the Just William TV series of the late Seventies.
Joining the cast in 1986, she worked with two Doctors, played by Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy, before returning for a brief cameo in Jodie Whittaker’s final episode in 2022.
This time she will be starring alongside Ncuti Gatwa, who will play the 15th Doctor in the new series.
Bonnie says: “When I joined Doctor Who I was still trying to escape my younger self.
“I wanted to get away from being this rather earnest, bubbly little redhead and be perfect.
“It took me a long time to realise that I didn’t have to be perfect, because what is perfect?
“But I did feel very vulnerable at certain times in my life. I sometimes didn’t like being me.
“I was always looking to be taken seriously as a performer. I struggled a lot with that.”
She adds of Doctor Who’s success: “I think it’s a show that is essentially about good overcoming evil, and how you get through that.
“More recently, both the Doctor and the key characters around him are allowed to be seen as being vulnerable.
“Ultimately, it’s a mixture of having a wonderful heart and, now, this nostalgic legacy which marks it out as a great British institution.
“I can’t believe I first joined the show 37 years ago. In those days we had slightly wobbly sets and dodgy-looking monsters. In some respects that added to its charm.”
In 2015 Bonnie’s career took a different direction when she joined EastEnders as troubled single mum Carmel Kazemi, whose son Kush was stabbed to death.
It was a role that proved she was every bit as good at gritty drama as musicals and light entertainment, and she went on to win Best Newcomer at the 2016 British Soap Awards.
She says: “Joining EastEnders was a challenge in a way because I had never worked in that fast-moving world of soaps. I was used to being on stage. It was non-stop.
“The only time EastEnders stopped was during lockdown. I did a storyline about knife crime, and I still get a lot of younger people coming up to me today to talk about their own experiences.
“Soaps mean so much to people, they still play an important part in people’s lives.
‘The shadows between happy, sad and angry’
“Would I go back into a soap? Of course, I would never turn down work. I just hope it would be EastEnders.”
Not one to turn down a fresh opportunity to perform, Bonnie appeared in ITV1’s Dancing On Ice in 2006, finishing third.
She went one better in The Masked Dancer, appearing as Squirrel and coming runner-up in 2021. But being on stage remains Bonnie’s first love and treading the boards is still her “happy place”.
She made her West End debut in Gone With The Wind in 1972, aged seven, and has since starred in a host of hits, including Chicago, Cats, 42nd Street and Anything Goes.
She is currently appearing in show Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, which honours the late musical theatre composer.
She met her ex-husband, actor Paul Grunert, on stage in 1987, and they have daughter Biana, 23, who is a dancer.
She also has four nieces, Summer, Scarlet, Zizi and Saskia Strallen, who are all actresses.
Bonnie says: “Unlike being in a soap, in the theatre you are on stage for two hours, and it’s all up to you until the curtain comes down. I am very happy in that sort of environment because I have to believe in myself.”
She adds that she is a huge fan of Sondheim because his work is not all “jazz hands, t*ts and teeth”.
She adds: “He covers those grey areas, the shadows between happy, sad or angry.
“He shows human nature in its raw form, strips away the prettiness. He delves into the darkness. There is one moment in Old Friends when they show a photo of Stephen Sondheim with Angela Lansbury.
“That really does become a moment for me and remains a stark reminder of just how lucky I was to work with them both when I was so young. It makes me very emotional.”
Bonnie's back
BONNIE LANGFORD first entered the world of Doctor Who in 1986 as Melanie Bush, the companion to the sixth Doctor Colin Baker and later joined his successor Sylvester McCoy on more adventures.
During 20 episodes on the show, Bonnie battled a succession of villains and monsters, including the Vervoids and the Bannermen.
Bonnie appeared briefly in the BBC One show last year, joining a support group of former companions for Jodie Whittaker’s final episode The Power Of The Doctor.
Speaking about reprising the role once more, Bonnie said: “I am absolutely thrilled to be bringing Melanie Bush back.
“I’m so privileged and proud to have been a member of the Doctor Who family since the classic era and to be included in the new generation is phenomenal.”
- Doctor Who’s 60th Anniversary Specials air from Saturday November 25 at 6.30pm on BBC One