Bonnie Langford, who plays companion Mel Bush, says she convinced Bradley Walsh to take on the part of Graham O’Brien in Doctor Who.

Langford played Mel opposite the Sixth and Seventh Doctors (respectively played by Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy), but returned for David Tennant’s time as the Fourteenth Doctor and Ncuti Gatwa’s as the Fifteenth. Graham, meanwhile, appeared with Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor.

Bonnie recalls:

“I went and met him for lunch. And he said, ‘I’ve been asked to do Doctor Who, I don’t know if I should.’ I said, ‘Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.’ And he did! In the end, we ended up doing a scene together, and I was just so pleased.”

The scene they shared was a companions’ meet-up at the end of Jodie’s swansong episode, The Power of the Doctor. More companions starred in the episode, including William Russell’s Ian Chesterton, Mandip Gill’s Yasmin Khan, Janet Fielding’s Tegan Jovanka, and Sophie Aldred’s Ace. Come to that, numerous Doctors appeared too!

Bonnie then returned properly, as part of UNIT, for the Fourteenth Doctor era, and Langford says:

“I’m really honoured that [showrunner, Russell T Davies] thought Mel was worth bringing back, and that she got totally and utterly involved with the bi-generation [in The Giggle]. It was a thrill. I was very taken with the fact that I was able to correct all those mistakes that I felt I had made first time round and, for Mel’s sake, that she was able to return as a much more rounded character with vulnerabilities.”

We don’t know whether we’ll see Mel again, but I certainly hope so. I always enjoy catching up with “legacy” characters, and it would be a shame for Mel’s last episode to be The Reality War, essentially shuffled off screen due to rewrites.

We shall find out… eventually…