David Tennant

Presenter0:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Discs from BBC Radio 4. For rights reasons the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

Presenter0:10

For more information about the programme, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.

Presenter0:33

My castaway this week is David Tennant. His brilliance in portraying Doctor Who has defined the Time Lord for a generation of children, and indeed redefined it for parents, who up until he took over had thought the only real Doctor Who was in possession of a mop of curls and a long stripy scarf. Rafish, dynamic, solitary, and daring, his Saturday evening intergalactic adventures have secured BBC One blockbusting figures and the actor himself the sort of household name status normally reserved for premiership footballers and rock stars. Yet, despite being voted the best Doctor Who of all time, he says, I always have that Presbyterian voice in my head saying could do better. But he admits, I quite like that. You don't give interviews very often, I don't think, David Tennant. I guess I

David Tennant1:22

I guess I I do a lot of interviews, but I tend to stick to the uh light-hearted, frothy stuff. I don't do many interviews like this often, no.

Presenter1:27

Don't

Presenter1:29

Okay, and that is just to try to preserve a a part of you that's not the doctor and it's not out there all the time. I think so, yes.

David Tennant1:33

It's not out there all the time.

Presenter1:38

Shall I leave now? Sorry.

Presenter1:40

The walking down the street stuff, I mean, I said Premiership footballers and uh rock stars, it's true, isn't it? You do inhabit that very particular area of fame. Do you walk down the street on your own?

David Tennant1:50

I certainly do.

Presenter1:51

On your own? Yeah.

David Tennant1:52

Uh Yes, but I often with a hat and keeping moving. Yes.

Presenter1:56

Right, so it's not making eye contact and it's that helps, yes.

David Tennant1:58

That helps, yes. But you can't pick and choose the elements that you would like to experience. Uh and I wouldn't have given up.

Presenter2:03

Tunga.

David Tennant2:05

the experience of doing this show and being involved in this show for anything in the world. It's been the most wonderful four years I could imagine. And to an extent I was doing it for my eight year old self, you know, who who had loved this show and had grown up a huge avid fan.

Speaker 42:18

Pickling up.

David Tennant2:21

And that eight-year-old self is still a a huge part of who I am now. So I think I felt the responsibility not to break it. I certainly feel very proud and relieved that that it didn't go wrong on my watch.

Presenter2:33

When you come into contact I'm sure this must happen to you all the time with those beaming little eight, nine, ten year old faces just staring at you are you sort of looking back at yourself when you see their eyes and see what it means to them?

David Tennant2:46

Yeah, it's quite overwhelming actually. The the sort of things that that kids sometimes say to you and you think, oh, that's me. That's exactly how I felt.

David Tennant2:54

And then of course you think, well I don't want to ruin this moment, I want to fulfil this moment for this.

Presenter2:57

Fulfill it.

David Tennant2:59

for this little kid and and and I remember meeting Tom Baker, you see.

David Tennant3:03

So why would

David Tennant3:05

In John Mingus in Glasgow he was signing some books.

David Tennant3:10

And I waited in line. Did you have any sign my book? I've still got it somewhere.

Presenter3:14

Did you talk to him or when did you?

David Tennant3:15

Yes, I did. I asked him about his scarf,'cause I was wearing the scarf that my granny had knitted me. Right. Um and uh I think I asked him who knitted his.

Presenter3:20

Right.

David Tennant3:25

He came up with some suitably surreal answer, w but to be honest, I was just so gobsmacked that he was sitting there in front of me that it was a very important life moment for little me. So uh you you always try and remember that and uh try and recreate that for any young faces that might be staring up at you.

Presenter3:42

What a perfect piece of symmetry. Let's begin then with your first disc, David. What have you chosen?

David Tennant3:48

I could have chosen any and every track from this band. They're probably my favourite band of all time. Very Scottish, just a fantastic band. They write the most spectacular songs.

David Tennant3:59

Big hearted, uncynical.

David Tennant4:01

Passionate songs

David Tennant4:04

When I was at drama school, my friend and I, Alan McHugh.

David Tennant4:07

We went busking on Sucky Hole Street.

David Tennant4:09

As the Proclaimers. This is from their very first album, one of their best songs, Over in Dunman.

Speaker 44:15

This is a story of a first teacher. Shaven made the jumpers and the devil made the features. Blew up my hands when my mum said her name. Evidently students were slightly explained. It's over and done with over and done with over and done with over. It's over and done with the

Presenter4:43

That was the Proclaimers and over and done with noticeably uh Scottish David Tennant. You you're a noticeably English Doctor Who? I am, yes.

David Tennant4:51

But you still have to

David Tennant4:52

No, it was requested by Russell T. Davis, the executive producer and writer. It didn't bother me at all. I thought that's the way you want to write it. I'm very happy to do it that way. Never occurred to me that that was in any way a political issue until people started asking me about it.

Presenter5:06

Right. And you had been considered as the first Doctor Who for the new relaunch. Was that right? No. No?

David Tennant5:11

No, no, no, no, no, no, it was Christopher Ecclesen he started the the new series off, but Chris did one year, so I came on board for Doctor Who b before it had become

Presenter5:18

Okay.

David Tennant5:21

Because I knew I was taking over before the first series had gone out.

David Tennant5:26

So nobody really knew that it was going to work at all, this rebooted version of this show. Okay. So before that that year even transmitted, they knew they were looking for somebody new.

Presenter5:30

Right.

Presenter5:36

Okay, had you watched it and thought I'd like to get my teeth into that? I know what I could do with that. Well, I've watched it as a kid and th

David Tennant5:41

Taught that.

Presenter5:41

Ah

David Tennant5:42

What happened was Russell Theodos and Julie Gardner, the other executive producer, sat me down and said they knew that I was interested in the show'cause I'd been saying, Can I get just one a part in one episode? I just want to be in it. You know, it's a big thing.

David Tennant5:55

And they were very reluctant to ever take me up on that. I thought, oh, they clearly don't want me in this. But they said, well, come around and have a look. We've nearly finished some of the episodes for this first series. Come around and see what you think.

Presenter6:04

Right.

David Tennant6:05

And at the end of that little uh private screening is when they said, The thing is, we might be looking for a new doctor. So it it was the most extraordinary, unexpected night. They'd clearly stage managed the whole thing, but uh I didn't see it coming.

Presenter6:17

But

Presenter6:19

Is it true that as a child you only ever missed one episode in nine years?

David Tennant6:22

It probably is, yes.

Presenter6:23

Right.

Presenter6:27

'Cause it was as a little boy that you thought about acting. Was it when you were watching Doctor Who?

David Tennant6:31

Absolutely. Or was it? Yeah. Well, it certainly that was one of the the things that inspired me because

David Tennant6:37

Having checked up on this, I can only have been three. So maybe I saw a repeat of this or something, but I.

David Tennant6:43

Believe I remember seeing John Pertwee turning into Tom Baker.

Presenter6:45

Right, I remember that.

David Tennant6:46

Right.

David Tennant6:47

Um you're impulsibly you're impossibly young for that, Kirsten. But I'm too late for that. You have too much of a beat to that. Sorry. But I do I do believe I remember that. And I remember thinking that was extraordinary.

Presenter6:51

I look at

David Tennant6:59

And then quizzing my parents about what that was, and then very quickly getting that that

David Tennant7:05

It was an act what an actor was and that these people were actors who told these stories.

David Tennant7:10

And just thinking that that sounded like the perfect job.

David Tennant7:14

Uh which it is ready.

Presenter7:16

Is it ridiculous to talk about destiny, then, under these circumstances? Do you feel maybe a

David Tennant7:20

Well, it's only ridiculous'cause I don't really believe in that, I suppose. Uh but I I I confess it does seem ridiculously serendipitous that it's worked out like this.

Presenter7:29

Let's listen to track number two. What's your second disc?

David Tennant7:32

I started getting into music as I was around.

David Tennant7:34

Fourteen, like you do, and uh I very quickly became perhaps something of an anorag about music. I remember that feeling of sitting in your bedroom playing records and thinking, Music is the most important thing, it's so exciting in it and it speaks to me in a way that's never spoken to anyone before. And then, you know, you start reading record mirror and you start becoming, I suppose, slightly geeky about it. I used to write down the top forty in a little book and keep it every week. I don't know what I was doing that for. This is an artist who I got into sort of after the event because I would read about him and people would talk about him as kind of being one of the great.

Presenter7:48

Yeah.

David Tennant8:04

Rock stars of all time. And he was really a punk. So I kind of went back and started buying all his albums and just think he's one of the greatest musicians there has ever been, Elvis Costello.

Speaker 48:14

Don't start the talkin'.

Speaker 48:18

I could talk all night, my mind was sleepwalking While I wouldn't know well to write Halkeria's information

Speaker 48:31

Have you got yourself an occupation? Out of us always you to stay Olivaz always underway And I would rap

Presenter8:45

That was Elvis Costello and Oliver's Army. You were born then not David Tennant, but David Macdonald and like another famous Scottish export you were the son of the Mance.

David Tennant8:54

Yes, indeed.

Presenter8:56

That's it.

David Tennant8:56

Is it is your dad still a minister? Well, he's retired now, but he still does a lot of guest sports preaching here and there.

Presenter9:01

Uh

David Tennant9:02

Is he good? He's very good actually, yeah. Yes. Very dramatic preacher.

Presenter9:06

Right. And so the Protestant guilt that you quite enjoy then, that presumably is root is rooted in those days in Paisley when you sat in the pews and

David Tennant9:12

Oh I said

David Tennant9:13

Absolutely, a very traditional Church of Scotland, the background that's available.

Presenter9:14

Right.

Presenter9:16

Was it? Tell me more tell me about that.'Cause it's not noted for its sort of high kicks and fun, though

David Tennant9:21

No, although though dad is not a he's not a high church type, he's not a dry minister. The religiosity of it wasn't rammed down our throats particularly. It was very much a kind of find your own way. But he was also the minister of the school, or primary school.

Presenter9:25

That was one.

Presenter9:30

It was very

Speaker 19:30

Uh

David Tennant9:35

He was the the local minister who would come in every Wednesday.

David Tennant9:39

Did you get a tough time for that? Do you know I didn't actually? I think because he's not. There was nothing embarrassing about him. He was quite a cool minister. Oh, was he? As cool as ministers can be, probably.

Presenter9:49

The only one in Scotland.

David Tennant9:50

Well, he was quite fun, so people didn't you know, th his his assemblies weren't weren't tortuous or anything.

Presenter9:56

And what about your mother, a stay-at-home mother or a workshop mother?

David Tennant9:59

She was I suppose she was a stay at home mum when we were all young. Uh she did various charity things. But she was very much the minister's wife as well. And there was always there was always people at the house. It was always full. Because a man is

David Tennant10:13

Is church property. So there was always somebody visiting. There was always some.

David Tennant10:17

Committee going on in the front room, or there was somebody being entertained some night, and there was the house was always full of people.

Presenter10:22

Did you enjoy that or did you wish that you'd had a a sort of quieter, more private house?

David Tennant10:25

I mean, I didn't feel...

David Tennant10:29

neglected by my parents. They were always there. Mum would be kind of

Presenter10:30

The broad is

David Tennant10:33

cooking something for the people in the dining room and then coming through and making sure I was all right. So it it almost just felt like that was what life was was like really.

Presenter10:40

And you were the youngest of three, then a brother and a sister.

David Tennant10:42

Right, you're both a good bit older. My brother's six years older, my sister's eight years older. That's quite a gap when you're six and they're twelve and fourteen. When I'm closer to Carnabler now, actually, probably, than I was when I was a kid.

Presenter10:53

And what would we have seen if we'd walked into apart from the the poster on the wall of Doctor Who of the Vent, Doctor Who Tom Baker, what else would we have seen in your bedroom? What sort of little world did you make for yourself?

David Tennant10:58

Yeah.

David Tennant11:03

Good question. I moved up through the bedrooms in the house as other members of the family left home and became grown-ups. So I started in the small room at the end and then moved up and ended up in the biggest room.

Presenter11:08

Okay.

David Tennant11:14

Well, it depends when you're looking, I guess. If I was very small, there would certainly have been the Doctor Who poster, there would have been Lego, there would have been Star Wars toys, there would have been a big box of chocolate. My mum's mum, my granny, used to flood us with bars of chocolate, and I used to keep them in a box.

David Tennant11:29

This I I must have been a very anal child, but I used to sort of ration myself and I used to keep a list of what was in the box and allow myself to sort of take one at a time and then score it off the list.

Presenter11:40

Mm-hmm. Another list, another book. Yeah. Exactly.

David Tennant11:42

Yeah, exactly.

Presenter11:43

Let's have some music. What's the matter?

David Tennant11:45

That wasn't the coolest case.

Presenter11:46

So glad you said that.

David Tennant11:48

I was leaving people to draw their own. I don't think that was going to take much for the listener to put two and two together there.

David Tennant11:54

This is the best concert I've ever been to.

David Tennant11:57

was the Glasgow SECC and it was the House Martins, their farewell tour just before they split up. I just loved the House Martins. I I loved their kind of punk pop sensibility. I loved their politics, but just great songs is really. And this this is what I'd pogo around the islands.

Speaker 412:14

Me, I'm the farmer, get on fine You storm me while the long bars of wine If I'm on my way, you cheat me wow But if I'm late here, yeah, hell me how

Speaker 412:27

And though it's a hard work no way, farmer is a happy food But Jesus hates them every day Cause Jesus gave and farm But to what it let you

Presenter12:43

That was the House Martins and me and the Farmers. So, David Tennant, we know that you wanted to be an actor from a a very, very young age, maybe even as young as three. Um did your parents, did your father, the minister, try to talk some sense into you at any point?

David Tennant12:50

Maybe.

David Tennant12:55

Yeah.

David Tennant12:56

Yes, they did. They did, but I didn't really notice. But only because of that sensible profession to try and make a living at. My dad often talks about had his had the world he grew up in been slightly different, he

Presenter13:01

Of course.

David Tennant13:11

would have quite enjoyed going into acting himself.

Presenter13:13

Of course, there's a degree of performance in setting up the curve.

David Tennant13:14

A huge amount of TheAntrecarity, especially when you see the way my dad does it. They always have been to see every show that I've been in and been very supportive and hugely excited when it's been going well. So it's not that they were against it. There was certainly no we mustn't exactly none of that. None of that. They just wanted me to make sure that I'd be able to feed myself.

Presenter13:28

The devil's work. Exactly. None of that.

Presenter13:33

So did they say get a profession behind you as well? Yeah, right.

David Tennant13:36

Yeah. But you didn't. I didn't know. They were quite keen I I think that maybe I'd get a teaching profession. Yes. Maybe you could be a drama teacher or just something that that could pay the bills. It they were they were quite right, but I was, you know, young and foolish and cavalier enough to

Presenter13:42

Yeah.

David Tennant13:51

Play my own path.

Presenter13:52

So given that your parents couldn't talk you out of it, I I noticed from from reading that that somebody who knows you very well said that you have a steeliness and an unshakable self-belief. Is is that something you recognise in your Arabella Weir said that?

David Tennant14:03

It might even use that.

David Tennant14:05

Did she? Yes.

Presenter14:06

I certainly must have done it.

David Tennant14:07

As a child, when I now look back and think how unlikely it is that it all worked out, I think if I'd had a sense of that at eleven or twelve, I would have probably given up on the notion.

David Tennant14:19

I suppose I'm I am driven, certainly, and I I'm always looking for the next job and trying to better myself.

Presenter14:24

And you auditioned for Drama School, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, when you were only 17. I mean, they normally. I was only 16 when I was 16. You were 16. Yeah, but I've said.

David Tennant14:31

You were only sixteen when I was sixteen.

Presenter14:34

Okay, and that's a good probably a good almost a year younger than anybody you would have

David Tennant14:38

I was the youngest in the school at the time. Right. I mean, I did this ridiculous audition, I did a bit of Hamlet.

Presenter14:40

Right.

David Tennant14:43

At 17, not really knowing what it was about. And then I did a bit from Death of a Salesman. I played a 65-year-old man at 17. I must have been useless.

Presenter14:44

Really annoying what it was about.

David Tennant14:53

And I remember you get taken into your editions by existing students.

David Tennant14:56

The girl was taking me in, a girl called Helen Reeves, and I sat there as various people came up and down the corridor and she was chatting to them all about, you're going to the pub tonight? Are we doing this? Doing that thing?

Speaker 415:04

Holy shit.

David Tennant15:04

This is the world where people go to pubs. This is what student life is like. I was a very green 16-year-old. Very green 16-year-old. And when I went to drama school at 17 I was still a very green 17 year old. I did a lot of growing up over three years.

Presenter15:18

Right. Like what? I mean, it can't just have been the pub.

Presenter15:22

What?

David Tennant15:22

Ow!

Presenter15:22

Uh

David Tennant15:22

Uh

David Tennant15:23

I was seeing that my friend Alan and I used to sing that Proclaimer song.

Presenter15:26

Right.

David Tennant15:26

There's a verse in the middle, this is the story of losing my virginity.

David Tennant15:30

And without us ever really discussing it, Alan just took that verse.

David Tennant15:35

You know, there was a lot of things I still had to discover when I went to drama school. Okay. Were y were you a shy boy? I know, I wasn't particularly shy. I just felt like I was busking all the time, like I was pretending to be much more grown up and much more worldly than I was. So yes, I caught up quite quickly. I mean, I imagine I was getting away with it. Possibly everyone at drama school was going to look at that wee boy.

David Tennant15:54

It's embarrassing, but he's alright, you know, he's he's trying hard.

Presenter15:58

Let's have some music. Tell me about your uh fourth disc.

David Tennant16:01

Well, this always makes me think of Scotland, and Glasgow in particular. It comes from the album Rain Town, which of course is about Glasgow. And this song makes me think about being a teenager in Glasgow. It's weird, they're a very Scottish band, but they do sing with these kind of fake American accents, Deacon Blue and Dignity.

Speaker 416:24

And I'm telling a story in a fire

Speaker 416:28

Sippin' down racket and reading mid-art keys And thinking about home and all that that means And a place in the winter For date

Presenter16:47

That was Deep and Blue and Dignity and A Sound of Glasgow on disc there. So you left drama school, you joined a theatre company called 784, which is a very

David Tennant16:50

Yeah.

Speaker 416:50

One

David Tennant16:50

Definitely.

David Tennant16:55

It was a

Presenter16:56

It's a left of centre, shall we say, theatre company. Theatre with a message.

David Tennant16:58

Yes, that's something.

David Tennant17:00

Well the 784 stands for 7% of the population and 84% of the wealth.

Presenter17:04

And did you go and work there because they offered you a job or because you had sympathy with the politics?

David Tennant17:09

The former was the principal reason because when you come out of drama school, you just want a gig.

Presenter17:12

You just want a gig.

David Tennant17:13

Yes. But I was very happy to be working for them and very proud to be associated with a social theatre company, yes.

Presenter17:18

And you ended up I don't know if this was one of your first jobs, but certainly when you were with them, you you were touring the Highlands and Islands, taking Brecht to it was it was it a grateful public?

David Tennant17:27

Yeah.

Presenter17:29

Um, I think they were

David Tennant17:30

Where?

Presenter17:30

Yeah.

David Tennant17:30

I mean

Presenter17:31

Oop.

David Tennant17:31

I was just happy to have a job, and we were in this little van doing one-night stands all over Scotland.

Presenter17:36

Right.

David Tennant17:36

And I thought it was a great production.

Presenter17:38

It was the resistible rise of Orto.

David Tennant17:40

The resistant barriers of our two do we yeah, we all played fourteen parts each.

Presenter17:43

Right. You don't think they would have preferred Hello Dolly then or something to sort of cheer them up?

Presenter17:47

Uh

David Tennant17:47

I don't know. To be honest, the highlighted islands of Scotland are always getting socialist theatre. They certainly were then. Whether they liked it or not. Whether they liked it was good for them, you see? With their salty porridge. That's what you do in Scotland. You do things that are good for you.

Presenter17:53

Yeah.

Presenter17:56

That's what you do.

Presenter17:59

And as you personally sort of checked into another B and B with the peeling for Micah and the P V C shower curtain, didn't you think?

Presenter18:08

There must be more to life than this.

David Tennant18:09

Oh n no, this was it. Was it? I was working as an actor. I was getting I I think I got two hundred quid a week, hundred eighty quid a week I think it was. And that was more money than I'd ever known. It was oh, it was sensational. I couldn't have been happier. I would still happily be working for them.

Presenter18:24

Blank Okay. And you were only twenty two when you played A transsexual barmaid in Rab C. Nesbit. I'm wondering why I worked it out. Yes, you were only twenty-two. What do they make of that back at the Mance?

David Tennant18:31

You were

David Tennant18:32

Yes, you would only

David Tennant18:35

Oh, they thought it was hilarious. Did they? Yeah. Perhaps he has but was a a big favourite of my dad's anyway.

Presenter18:40

Right.

David Tennant18:40

Yeah.

Presenter18:40

Uh

David Tennant18:40

Well also because it was a big popular T V programme. That was the first time I'd been in something that was part of popular culture I suppose.

Presenter18:47

Okay. And what about did they come and see you when you were you were once naked on stage apart from a police helmet? I'm not sure where the helmet was.

David Tennant18:47

Yeah.

David Tennant18:52

Well they had the peace helmet wasn't even always on either. No, that's true, they did. They came and saw that.

Presenter18:54

Right.

Presenter18:56

Okay.

Presenter18:57

Fine.

David Tennant18:57

Yeah.

Presenter18:57

Yeah.

David Tennant18:57

Yeah.

Presenter18:57

Yeah.

David Tennant18:57

At

David Tennant18:58

Yes, I think so. Yeah, I remember. By the tone of your voice, I don't think so. Well, I remember the night they were in. I'd sort of not really focused on that moment until just before it came. I thought, oh, this is suddenly a little embarrassing. And what was the play?

Presenter19:02

One hybrid

David Tennant19:11

What the Butler saw, Joe Orton, at the National Theatre, was the first time I had worked at the National, so it was very exciting that they were coming to see that.

Speaker 119:12

Uh

Presenter19:12

Right, and I

Presenter19:16

We see that.

David Tennant19:17

I do remember my my mum afterwards saying, Oh, I haven't seen that since you were a little boy.

David Tennant19:22

So I think they they had a

Presenter19:23

There's a few remotes.

Presenter19:24

And by that time then, I mean, you you are describing a career that that's on the right trajectory. You know, it's on the way up. You're saying you're in the National Theatre, you'd start off in 784, you'd start to get television work. And yet, I mean, you would have been

Presenter19:37

I don't know, would you quite have been thirty when you were still renting a bedroom in a friend's house? I think I probably was, yeah. Yes. Did that feel fine to you? Did it all feel worthwhile?

David Tennant19:46

Uh I think maybe I had bought my first flat actually by the time I was thirty. Okay. But I maybe I wasn't earning a lot of money, but I was earning enough to get by. So I've never starved. Uh no particular need for m more material goods.

Presenter20:00

What about going into somewhere like the National? I mean, did you feel as you walked through its doors it was like a sort of footballer walking through Chelsea or Manu doors?

David Tennant20:05

So

David Tennant20:08

Absolutely.

Presenter20:08

Right.

David Tennant20:09

Absolutely. We had Richard Wilson in our play who was, you know, still is one of the biggest stars in the country.

David Tennant20:15

But yeah, you're in the you're in the green room and there's Michael Gambon over there and there's Judy Dench over there and it's the most exciting thing. Let's have some music. Tell me what's next. I applied myself to thinking about this, you know, and I thought if I'm on a desert island

David Tennant20:29

I'd need to have something of the spoken word going on.

David Tennant20:33

And this is probably my favorite of all time. I remember listening to this on headphones on the train from Scotland to London and biting my fist and crying with laughter. So this would cheer me up and also just keep me sane on the desert island.

Speaker 120:46

Then they beamed down to an oval of gravel with six big rocks at the back.

Speaker 120:49

Every way

Speaker 120:51

Oh, Captain, strong deja vu here.

Speaker 120:54

And they get out those machines.

Speaker 121:01

Captain, this entire planet is made of willywill.

Speaker 121:05

So you, Captain, and Chekhov and Sulu and Ahura and and and everything we've ever thought of is Widdywee.

Speaker 121:11

I think this might just be a box with Widdy Weirin on it.

Presenter21:15

That was Eddie Izzard's musings about life on board the Starship Enterprise from his 1994 show. So David Tennant, of course the Doctor overwhelms any conversation about your career, but it is important to remember that you have played to very significant critical acclaim lots of other great parts too. Casanova for BBC Three was one of them. Was that your big step up into television, do you think, when people really became aware of you?

Speaker 121:33

Yeah.

David Tennant21:34

Baby seats

David Tennant21:38

It was a beautiful piece of.

Presenter21:42

Right.

Presenter21:45

It was a beautiful piece of television.

David Tennant21:47

It was fantastic. Well written by Russell T. Davis. That was when I first met him. And it wa I it I suppose in a way became my extended audition for Doctor Who, although I didn't realize it at the time.

Presenter21:50

Yeah, that was

Presenter21:56

You were quite an unconventional choice for Casanova. What are you saying, Kirsten?

David Tennant22:01

That there are better looking choices.

Presenter22:02

There are enough women throwing themselves at your feet that I feel I can confidently say that you wouldn't necessarily have been everyone's choice.

David Tennant22:09

I didn't think I had a chance, no. But they weren't looking for the kind of Lothario Casanova, they were looking for the puppy dog version of Casanova who was who who wooed women through his Joie de Vivre. I was thrilled to get the part because the script was so fantastic.

Presenter22:11

Mills

Presenter22:14

What working?

Speaker 122:14

Yeah.

David Tennant22:25

And there was something about Russell's dialogue that

David Tennant22:29

I I I I just wanted to consume and I I suppose if anything got me the part it was probably

David Tennant22:34

a kind of feel for his rhythm which I I I just adore.

Presenter22:38

And did you then when you started to talk t to Russell T. Davis when when you were on set, is that when he began to understand that you and he shared because he was a dedicated Doctor Who fan, did you sort of swap your Doctor Who's

David Tennant22:47

But yeah, so

David Tennant22:50

Yeah, oh, absolutely, quite freely because I knew he was making Doctor Who at the same time. Right. So I was just quizzing him on how it was going.

David Tennant22:57

I'm trying to get a part. I wasn't for a minute thinking.

David Tennant23:01

Or you'll cast me as the next Doctor.

Presenter23:03

Right.

David Tennant23:03

And honestly, I wouldn't necessarily have wanted him to either. It was it's it's I remember when he asked me to do it. You know?

David Tennant23:10

It's a big deal because it's such a big thing. It has such a huge reach and impact in people's consciousness that inevitably it's very difficult to move away from. That's not me saying I want to, but you do feel like the the first line of the obituary has been written. I'm going to take one part of that.

Presenter23:28

When you were cast then, were there there must have been surely thousands of words on chat rooms devoted to whether they'd made the right choice or the wrong choice. Did you bother to read any of that stuff?

David Tennant23:36

Boyce

David Tennant23:39

Because I was new to it, so I didn't realise how foolhardy that would be. Can you remember the worst and the best of what was said? You don't remember the best, of course. Of course. Because that's human nature, isn't it?

Presenter23:49

Yes.

David Tennant23:50

But people think, oh, I'd much rather have someone else. This is terrible. This is an awful choice. Of course, that hurt. And again, because I was invested in it as a child.

Presenter23:57

Hmm.

David Tennant23:57

It hurts your eight-year-old self and that that's quite hard to get over.

Presenter24:01

Now that the final episode of of Doctor Who is gone, is there a and this is in to no way undermine your commitment to it. I know you'll be careful about what you say, or you might feel you need to be careful, but is there a sense of sort of relief and freedom?

Presenter24:14

Yeah.

David Tennant24:14

M

David Tennant24:16

I don't know yet. I think I'll probably have to wait until the show starts transmitting with somebody that isn't me in it to really know how proprietorial I feel over it.

Presenter24:24

Yes. Let's move on, let's have some music then. What what have what have you chosen next?

David Tennant24:27

This probably of all the songs on the on the list, this is the one that reminds me most of Doctor Who because I remember it being played on set a lot, I remember people singing along to it a lot. I this is also as a result of Doctor Who, I found myself interviewing this band for the NME.

David Tennant24:41

Weirdly, and realizing that they were rather big fans, and then we sort of became mates.

David Tennant24:47

There was a sense that doing Doctor Who had finally made me friends with the cool kids at school, and it's the Kaiserchief.

Speaker 424:54

Let it never be said that the romance is dead Cause there's so little else occupying my head There is nothing I need Except the function to breathe But I'm not really fussed, doesn't matter to me Ruby, ruby, ruby, ruby

Presenter25:24

That was the Kaiser Chiefs and Ruby. You say, David Tennant, you tend to only, like most actors, I suppose, remember the bad reviews. Let me give you a quote from one of the better ones. One of the most purely entertaining hamlets I have ever seen. That was Christopher Hart in the Sunday Times. Thanks, Christopher.

Presenter25:41

Um it's an interesting phrase, I think, purely entertaining.

David Tennant25:45

Yes, it's not m it might not entirely be a good thing. I don't know what he was suggesting. We'd need to see the review in context, but it's not entirely a bad thing because I think there's a lot of Hamlet that's very funny. And I think there's a lot of Hamlet the man that is very entertaining because again he's so bright and he's the brightest person in the room and he can run rings around everybody.

Presenter25:52

Yeah, there's a major.

Presenter25:59

Yeah.

David Tennant26:03

And that's entertaining to witness, especially if as an audience you're enlisted on his side, which I think you are in the play.

Presenter26:08

But you did have very good reviews. Do you read or do you know, does your dad read yourself?

Presenter26:15

How much it takes out of you. And what about the people that were coming to s to see you, of course? Because I I imagine a

David Tennant26:15

It takes a

Presenter26:21

A good proportion of the audiences were made up of people who were fans of yours because of the television work you do. Did that change things? Do you notice that it's not a typical theatre crowd?

David Tennant26:29

Not typical sea.

Presenter26:30

I didn't.

David Tennant26:31

particularly. I think certain people were nervous of that. I think there was conversations being had at the Royal Shakespeare Company and and elsewhere that there might be people sitting in the front row dressed as Cybermen, but uh that's perhaps not giving enough credit to the intelligence of Doctor Who fans actually. I think I think people who like that show tend to be quite bright.

Presenter26:48

Nothing.

Presenter26:50

There's a degree of criticism for that sort of casting. I'm not talking precisely about you being cast in Hamlet, because obviously you've been at the Royal Shakespeare Company, you've been at the National Theatre, you had done the background work, but there are people, people like Jonathan Miller, no less, who say that they hate this obsession that there seems to be, particularly in the West End, with celebrity casting. Do you think there is a danger that it will undermine the work of actors who otherwise would be getting those parts? I think it's ever been thus.

Speaker 126:59

And that

David Tennant27:22

To be honest, as you pointed out, the RSC is something I'd always.

David Tennant27:26

Had always been part of my life. I'd done sev a couple of seasons there, several shows. So me going back there felt.

David Tennant27:33

to myself, like a natural thing to do, to go back to the RSC and and to get to play that role there was something I'd aspired to long before I'd been involved in in any television stuff. Now I I suppose the RSC are maybe more interested in having me because they might sell more tickets because I've been in Doctor Who, but I don't think the RSC would have me just because of that.

Presenter27:52

What's your next uh disc then?

David Tennant27:55

This is from someone who's who's a stand-up really. He does brilliant, incredibly intelligent.

David Tennant28:00

comedy songs. The two times I've seen him live he's finished the set with this and uh it starts off as a sort of what seemed to be a sort of funny song but then just becomes a kind of a very simple heartfelt ballad to the importance of family actually and both times I've seen it it's left me in floods of tears. I mean it's not written about my family but it makes you think about your own family, it makes you realize how important they are and I think that's something I come to terms with as I get older, just how important they are.

David Tennant28:30

And I feel my mum's gone now, but I feel very fortunate.

David Tennant28:33

To have had the upbringing that I've had, until I've had the family around me that I've had.

David Tennant28:39

And then to see the next generation of our family growing up and to feel so proud of them.

David Tennant28:44

So this makes me think of that.

Speaker 428:45

I'll be seein' my dad.

Speaker 428:51

My brother and sisters, my gran and mamma.

Speaker 428:57

They'll be drinking white wine in the sun

Speaker 128:58

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 429:02

I'll be seeing my dad, my brother and sisters, my gran and my mama.

Speaker 129:05

Uh bro

Speaker 429:11

They'll be drinking what wine

Presenter29:13

Wine in the sun. That was Tim Minchin and White Wine in the Sun, all about the importance of of family. You you talked about the importance of family going into that. Are you you're an uncle now?

David Tennant29:24

I'm an uncle several times, yeah. I'm an uncle uh five times.

Presenter29:29

Must be amazing having Doctor Who for an uncle.

David Tennant29:32

And

David Tennant29:34

I guess so you'd have to ask them. But uh yeah, I think I think the family have enjoyed it, the slight craziness. They've also had to put up with a bit as well, for which I apologize, but um it's been fun.

Presenter29:45

Uh your mother had time to enjoy your success. W did she talk to you about it?

David Tennant29:50

Yeah, she did, and it was lovely.

David Tennant29:53

It was lovely just because she was thrilled by it. I mean, at times slightly too thrilled. You know, she would she'd be very willing to invite the Daily Mail journalist in and give them tea, which was at times slightly frustrating for me, who was trying to hold on to some kind of public enigma. But she was proud and that was lovely.

Presenter30:12

And what about your dad, then, who um as you say, they were always very supportive and on on the other hand, as any parent can understand, worried about the choice you'd made. And here you are at thirty eight, this incredible success.

David Tennant30:21

Another choice you'd make.

David Tennant30:23

At 38, that's incredible success. Yeah, I think dad probably thinks it's going okay right now, yeah.

Presenter30:28

And, you know, untypically for for somebody who doesn't have their own kids, you you really do get it with kids right.

David Tennant30:33

Right.

Presenter30:34

Uh

David Tennant30:34

Yeah.

Presenter30:34

Would you like to have children?

Presenter30:37

Yeah, sure.

David Tennant30:38

I think it feels like an important thing to do.

Presenter30:40

Yeah.

David Tennant30:41

I'd need to miss out on that, yeah.

Presenter30:42

Well, I mean you're only thirty eight, but uh

David Tennant30:44

But yes. Um my parents had had three kids by this age, so

Presenter30:48

Yeah.

David Tennant30:50

I'll have it none yet.

Presenter30:51

Get on with it. Get on with it then.

David Tennant30:52

Yeah

Presenter30:53

So you of course have contemplated the meaning of being alone in the universe as the Doctor. You will be alone on your little island.

David Tennant30:58

Of course.

David Tennant31:01

I I'm quite good at solitary, and the last few years in particular have been so hectic that for a while I'll probably be okay. But I don't know how long it'll last. I've never been solitary for all that long. In practical terms, I I won't be great. I won't be great at constructing a shelter out of palm fronds.

Presenter31:19

Right. Tell me about your final track then.

David Tennant31:21

This has possibly the finest lyric in the English language, which is how can you lie there and think of England when you don't even know who's in the team.

David Tennant31:28

It's a brilliant song. It's got passion and it's written by Billy Bragg, who's kinda known as a as a protest singer, I guess. But actually it's his love songs that are

David Tennant31:39

Just life expanding and life enhancing. And this is from him.

Speaker 431:45

Shelly, it's quite exciting to be sleeping in this room.

Speaker 431:52

Shirley, you're my reason to get out of bed before noon Shirley, you know when we sat out on the forest talking

Speaker 432:06

Shirley, what did you say about money before we were walking?

Presenter32:14

Billy Bragg and greetings to the new brunette. Sir David Tennant, The Complete Works of Shakespeare is yours. Have you read The Complete Works of Shakespeare?

David Tennant32:20

Happy.

Presenter32:23

Do you know, there's probably a couple I haven't read. So that's good. That's good. The Bible also.

David Tennant32:25

Well that's good.

Presenter32:28

And you can take along your own book. What will your book be?

David Tennant32:31

This is difficult, but I'm not a great re-reader of stuff.

Presenter32:34

Right.

David Tennant32:35

So I figure I should take something that I've not read and frankly will never read unless I've got an absolute enforced exile.

David Tennant32:43

So I'm going to go for Proust, à la Rocherche de Tom Perdu, because it's like a a gazillion pages long. Ambitious. I'm never going to read it unless I'm trapped on a desert island. And then I can be one of the few people who's got through it, and I can come back feeling quite smug. You will.

Presenter32:59

And your luxury too.

David Tennant33:01

Well,

David Tennant33:03

What I would like, if I'm allowed, is some kind of solar-powered DVD player system with the complete West Wing on it. Oh, yes, you can. Is that possible?

Presenter33:10

Oh yes, it can be.

David Tennant33:12

I have the seven series of the West Wing because it's after Doctor Who it's probably the best television there's ever been and there's lots of it again so that'll use up lots of hours.

Presenter33:13

Because it

Presenter33:21

Okay, it's yours. And if uh you had to choose just one disk, which one would it be?

David Tennant33:26

It's almost cruel to ask me that.

David Tennant33:29

I really want them all, but right now, because I'm feeling sentimental, I'm going to slightly surprise myself. I'm going to take it to Mension.

Presenter33:36

It's yours. I didn't think I'd say that. Neither did I. No. David Tennant, thank you very much for letting us hear your desert island discourse. It's a proper honour, thank you.

Presenter34:30

You've been listening to a download from the BBC.

Presenter34:33

You'll find more information on the Radio 4 website: bbc.co.uk/radio4.