Features

How did Ncuti Gatwa feel working with classic companion Mel?

Now that the first season of the Fifteenth Doctor's adventures has wrapped, Doctor Who Magazine is looking back at some of the highlights, including a special Doctor and companion reunion! 

The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Mel Bush (Bonnie Langford) worked with Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) and the knowledge of her missing mother to defeat an ancient enemy of the Doctor... but how did actors Ncuti and Bonnie feel about their reunion? Doctor Who Magazine talks to Ncuti about his favourite moments with Bonnie. 

The latest edition of Doctor Who Magazine (DWM) is on sale from Thursday 18th July. It is available to order as a subscription, either physical or digital, here.

Read an exclusive excerpt from issue 606 below.

Bonnie Langford as Mel

Ncuti Gatwa is clearly thrilled to be working with Bonnie Langford again.

“It’s an honour,” he says of the actor behind the indefatigable Melanie Bush. “She’s a true showbiz gal. A consummate professional. She gets up, does the job come rain or shine – ‘I’m here, I’m standing in the right spot, right place, I’m looking after the crew’ – and that’s rare. That’s why she has a career as illustrious and long as she does. She’s Bonnie Langford for a reason. She puts herself behind the work. The work comes first. It’s a great quality to have. That’s built in the theatre.

“And she’s a team player,” he continues. “A pure, pure team player. She’s such a caring person. On days that I’ve had where I’m like, this is a lot, she always knocks on my trailer, gives me a hug and a pack of custard creams. She knows I love custard creams, deeply. And to have her knowledge of Doctor Who is so great. Like, she gets it. Bonnie Langford gets it.”

Find out more in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine.

Doctor Who Magazine issue 606

This issue of the magazine also includes:

  • Behind the scenes on this year’s season finale with Ncuti Gatwa, Bonnie Langford, Jemma Redgrave, Yasmin Finney, Russell T Davies and many more!
  • Join Gabriel Woolf as he records the voice of Sutekh for The Legend of Ruby Sunday and Empire of Death and remembers his role in 1975’s Pyramids of Mars. Plus! We talk to James Burge – the hand of Sutekh…
  • Script to Screen: creating the bird-like alien Chuldur for Regency episode Rogue.
  • We discuss the more unsettling aspects of Finetime with Callie Cooke and Tom Rhys Harries – alias Dot and Bubble’s Lindy and Ricky.
  • Russell T Davies runs into Louis Theroux at the BBC and the conversation quickly turns to Doctor Who.
  • What If…? We journey down the roads never taken during the Fourth Doctor’s era…
  • The Time and Space Visualiser takes us back to 1982 to look at a formative Doctor Who publication…
  • A tribute to William Russell. We reflect on the important role his character, Ian Chesterton, played in the series; take a look at his wider career; and share the memories of those who worked with him including Carole Ann Ford, Maureen O'Brien and Peter Purves.
  • Loose Ends drops in on Graham O’Brien’s companion support group, where they’re bidding a touching farewell to their most senior member…
  • The Fact of Fiction – a detailed analysis of 1965’s The Space Museum.
  • The latest instalment of our comic strip featuring the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby.

The latest edition of Doctor Who Magazine (DWM) is on sale from Thursday 18th July. It is available to order as a subscription, either physical or digital, here.

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