“I couldn’t watch Kush going under that train!”
FORMER WALFORD STAR BONNIE LANGFORD REFLECTS ON CARMEL’S TRAGIC LOSSES, AND TELLS US ABOUT HER UPLIFTING NEW PROJECT…
When Walford favourite Kush met a grisly ending last year – bumped off by serial killer Gray Atkins – our first thought was for his poor mum, Carmel. She’d already lost her youngest son, Shaki, in heartbreaking circumstances when he was the victim of knife crime, so to lose yet another child in such an awful way was truly tragic.
As we catch up with former EastEnders star Bonnie Langford, who played Carmel from 2015 to 2018, she admits that she didn’t tune in to see her screen son’s final scenes in the soap…
“Davood [Ghadami, who played Kush] is adorable, such a lovely man, and that was not a nice ending,” she admits. “So I didn’t watch Kush being chucked under a tube train, no, I didn’t want to see that. At least I just went off in the back of a taxi. Carmel’s still in Dubai as far as I know, with her other son, Darius.”
Having appeared in her first West End show when she was just seven, and worked solidly ever since, Bonnie was already a big name when Carmel arrived on Albert Square. Yet the actress admits that being in a soap is very different from anything else she’s ever done.
“It was a lovely experience,” she grins. “I always have great admiration for everybody who works on that show, because the speed and the turnaround is just massive. Though I do remember when I first went into the show, they wanted Carmel to dance, and I had to say no; that would just be a bit obvious. So we changed it.
“I speak to Shaheen [Jafargholi], who played my son Shaki, quite often,” adds Bonnie. “I try to keep up with people – Tilly [Keeper, aka Louise Mitchell] has just got a job on a Netflix series, and Zack [Morris, who played Keegan] has only just left, and he’s already gone off to do a movie, which is amazing. It’s great that you can come out of a show like EastEnders that’s so consuming, and walk into another job straight away.”
Both of Bonnie’s on-screen sons went from Walford to Holby, with Shaheen landing the role of Marty in Casualty, and Davood moving to Holby City before it ended recently. And Bonnie would love to be reunited on screen.
“I did say at one point that I should go into Casualty as an A&E victim, and see which of my sons would end up treating me!” she chuckles. “That would be funny, especially if it was one of the Casualty and Holby crossover episodes, so we could all be in it together. I’d love that!”
An appearance on Casualty will have to wait for now, though, as Bonnie is about to embark on a UK tour of Anything Goes, which will end with a run at London’s Barbican in the summer. And she tells us that the feel-good musical is exactly what theatre audiences need right now.
“It’s set on an ocean liner travelling from New York to London in the 1930s,” explains Bonnie. “There are various misadventures; there’s nothing too deep about it, just jokes and frolics and beautiful music. And some tap-dancing sailors. What more could you want? “People may think that, because it’s set in 1934, it
must be a bit old-fashioned – but it isn’t,” continues the star. “It’s about people finding themselves in desperate circumstances, which happens all the time. Although it’s relevant, it’s utterly uplifting – and great escapism from all the doom and gloom right now.”
As for a return to EastEnders as Carmel in the future, Bonnie reckons that she wouldn’t rule it out.
“I’m a working actor, and you can never predict what’s going to happen next,” she admits. “I’m very lucky to still be doing something that I did as a youngster, and something I still enjoy. It’s a privilege to entertain people and tell a story, I feel really honoured.”