Doctor Who: David Tennant and Catherine Tate to return

By Lizo Mzimba
Entertainment correspondent, BBC News

Published
15 May

David Tennant and Catherine Tate are to return to Doctor Who, the BBC has confirmed.

The pair are currently filming for the sci-fi show's 60th anniversary, which it will celebrate in 2023.

Tennant played the 10th Doctor on the time travel drama from 2005-2010, while Tate played companion Donna Noble.

The news comes a week after the BBC announced that Sex Education star Ncuti Gatwa will be the next Doctor.

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Tennant and Tate's involvement means they will be reunited with returning Doctor Who head writer Russell T Davies.

Davies, who was in charge of Doctor Who when it was successfully revived in 2005, left at the same time as Tennant. Their last episode together was broadcast in 2010.

Tennant has briefly returned before, joining then-Doctor Matt Smith for the programme's 50th anniversary in 2013.

It's not clear at this stage whether this return will be a similar one, with Tennant and Tate appearing alongside Gatwa. 

Davies has teased fans, saying: "Maybe this is a missing story. Or a parallel world. Or a dream, or a trick, or a flashback. The only thing I can confirm is that it's going to be spectacular, as two of our greatest stars reunite for the battle of a lifetime."

Tennant and Tate's 2008 series of Doctor Who is the most successful that the show has had since its revival in 2005, with an average audience of more than eight million viewers per episode.

The 13-episode run also enjoyed a high degree of critical acclaim, and was nominated for best drama at that year's Bafta TV Awards.

The pair's popularity may well provide a ratings boost for a show which has seen its audience fall in the last two years, albeit against a background where all linear TV viewing has been dropping significantly.

Announcements such as this are often made ahead of Doctor Who imminently filming in public places. Revealing information ahead of shooting is a strategy that the show has used before.

Jodie Whittaker's current incarnation of the Doctor will appear in one more special episode later this year, as part of a collection of programmes celebrating the BBC's centenary. The show will then return in 2023.

Since leaving Doctor Who, Tennant has appeared in TV series including Good Omens, Around the World in 80 Days and Broadchurch. In 2021, he won a National Television Award for playing serial killer Dennis Nilsen in Des.

Tate has appeared in sitcoms like Big School, and has continued performing her well known Nan character - most recently in The Nan Movie released earlier this year.

The pair have also recorded a number of Doctor Who audio adventures which have been released by audio drama company Big Finish.

Advent Calendar: The Christmas Solstice

It starts with the boom of artillery. It's night and British soldiers are sat in the trenches. The Post is being handed out,and John, a soldier of a young age, waits for his weekly letter from his spouse. Nothing arrives.Days of cold,December nights pass.

Some have seen it through the past three months of massacre and endless sacrifice.Thousands of Corpses have been swept under the trench,to rot and decompose into the final stage of nothingness. Still no letter from his spouse.

A Wheezing and Groaning Sound pierces through silence. An Unfamiliar thin,tall blue box fades in and out of the trench. It appears fully, and the door unlocks.

A man with particularly edwardian clothing steps out,followed by a Young adult with braided hair. The final person steps out.A  woman with Brown hair.He recognises her. She hands John a letter and whispers gently "Merry Christmas." The two strangers leave in their blue box and it fades into the air,leaving the two in peace together.

Dr Who @ 50- Photos

 Fifty years ago today, on 20 September 1963, the first photographs of Doctor Who were taken…

The shoot took place in London at BBC Television Centre and the event was significant for another reason: It was the first time the four stars of Doctor Who’s first season had ever met!

William Hartnell, who played the Doctor, was introduced to Carole Ann Ford (who played Susan), Jacqueline Hill (Barbara) and William Russell (Ian). Filming for Doctor Who’s first episode had begun the previous day, but that shoot had entailed the shadow of a caveman falling across a landscape dominated by the TARDIS. In that respect it could be said that the TARDIS itself was the first star of Doctor Who!

You’ll find out more about those early days later this year in the brilliant drama, An Adventure in Space and Time.

Many photographs from that first shoot are now familiar to fans around the world, but it’s interesting to see how already, in those early images, the characters of the four main characters can be detected, from the strait-laced nature of Barbara to the enigma that is the Doctor!

Here are some more of our favourite shots that can truly be called, the first photographs of Doctor Who…

 

Peter Capaldi is the Doctor!

 Amid much hype and speculation, Peter Capaldi was unveiled as the next Doctor during a special live television event on BBC ONE tonight.

Widely regarded as one of the biggest roles in British television, Capaldi will be the Twelfth Doctor and takes over from Matt Smith who leaves the show at Christmas.

Peter Capaldi says : “Being asked to play the Doctor is an amazing privilege. Like the Doctor himself I find myself in a state of utter terror and delight. I can't wait to get started."

Steven Moffat, lead writer and executive producer says : “It's an incendiary combination: one of the most talented actors of his generation is about to play the best part on television. Peter Capaldi is in the TARDIS!”

Doctor Who companion, Jenna Coleman says : "I'm so excited Peter Capaldi is the man taking on the challenge of becoming the Twelfth Doctor. With Steven's writing and his talent I know we'll be making an amazing show with an incredible incarnation of number 12. I can't wait to start this new adventure!"

Charlotte Moore, Controller BBC One says : “Peter Capaldi has all the genius and versatility needed to take on the mantel of the great Time Lord and make the role his own.  He'll bring his own particular wisdom, charisma and wit to the Twelfth Doctor and take the show into an exciting new era.”

Ben Stephenson, Controller, BBC Drama Commissioning says : “We started thinking Peter Capaldi might be the right person to take on this iconic part a few months ago. But it was only when he did a secret audition at Steven's house under the cover of darkness that we knew we had our man. He's an extraordinarily talented actor who can seemingly turn his hand to anything. We can't wait to premiere his unique take on the Doctor on Christmas Day and we are sure he's going to become one of the all-time classic Doctors.”

Doctor Who is produced by BBC Cymru Wales

 

BIOGRAPHY

Peter Capaldi is an award winning actor, film maker and lifelong Doctor Who fan.

He has enjoyed an illustrious career to date in both film and television.

Before securing the coveted role of the Twelfth Doctor, Peter first appeared in Doctor Who in 2008, playing Caecilius in the episode "The Fires of Pompeii".

Peter grew up in Glasgow and attended the Glasgow School of Art, while studying there he secured his first breakthrough role in Local Hero (1983).  He has also had roles in Dangerous Liaisons, The Crow Road, The Devil’s Whore and Torchwood: Children of Earth.

It is his role as Government spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in the BBC comedy series, The Thick of It , that has earned Peter both international and award success.  In 2010 he won the BAFTA Television Award for Best Male Performance in a Comedy Role and the BPG Best Actor Award. In both 2010 and 2012, Peter won the British Comedy Award for Best TV Comedy Actor.  A film spin-off from The Thick of It, entitled In the Loop, was released in 2009.

As well as appearing in front of the camera, Peter is an award winning film maker.  In 1995, he won the Oscar for Best Short Film (Live Action) for Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life.  He also wrote Soft Top, Hard Shoulder, which won the audience award at the London Film Festival, and wrote and directed Strictly Sinatra. Peter's stage credits include Professor Marcus in The Ladykillers at the Liverpool Playhouse, which saw the play transfer to the Gielgud Theatre in London.

2013 has been a busy year for Peter who has been seen on screen in the film World War Z and in BBC Two drama series The Hour, for which he was BAFTA nominated.  Not only will Peter film his first scenes for Doctor Who this Autumn, but he will appear in the forthcoming film The Fifth Estate and the Disney film Maleficent.

Peter is currently filming new BBC One drama series The Musketeers, in which he plays Cardinal Richelieu which will launch in early 2014.

Tour de Force!

 

The Doctor returns to our screens in Easter but before he travels the universe he'll be touring the UK at the end of March.

Matt Smith and Karen Gillan - the Eleventh Doctor and new companion Amy Pond - will be hopping onboard a specially themed Doctor Who tour bus and visiting five communities from Northern Ireland to Northampton.

Each location will host a regional premiere of the new series opening episode, The Eleventh Hour. Please note, tickets are not available for these screenings.

The tour bus will be visiting Belfast before moving on to Karen Gillan's hometown of Inverness. Sunderland and Salford are the next stops before journey's end in Matt's hometown of Northampton.

Although tickets are not available for any of the screenings we'll be onboard the bus to bring you exclusive coverage of the tour.

And in early April there'll be a separate series of events in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Plymouth and Swansea. These will feature giveaways, the chance to see the new trailer in 3D, get your photograph taken whilst tumbling through the vortex and come face-to-face with some of the Doctor's deadliest enemies! We'll be bringing you more details of this nearer the time.

Forty Years of Gallifrey

 Despite all we know about the Doctor he remains an enigmatic figure, swathed in mystery and obscured by legend. Even his real name is a secret, but we have learnt he is the sole survivor of his race, the last of the Time Lords.

Forty years ago this month we first heard the Doctor talk about the Time Lords. Until that point there had been barely a handful of tantalising references to his home planet and his own people. Who they were, the nature of their society and even the name they were known by had remained undisclosed.

But all that changed when the Second Doctor needed their help and after introducing the mighty Time Lords, Doctor Who would never be the same again.

To find out more about Gallifrey's renegade Time Lords, take a virtual stroll through the Rogues Gallery! You can also find out more about the Doctor and his relationship with the Time Lords or to catch him discussing his people, planet, the Daleks and the Time War, check out the clips on this page.

DWM reaches 400!

 It may be only a handful of heartbeats to a Time Lord, but Doctor Who Magazine has reached an impressive milestone this month - its 400th issue.

To celebrate, the mag's editors tracked down an avid reader since its humble beginnings as Doctor Who Weekly - David Tennant.

"I bought the first issue, in 1979," David told DWM. "I just thought, 'at last! Why's this not happened before now?' I was delighted. I chose it as my order. I used to be allowed one issue a week."

Asked if DWM run for another 400 issues, David seemed optimistic. "Another 400 issues... you know, I'm tempted to say, 'If the television series continues,' but Doctor Who Magazine thrived when the series was nowhere to be seen, to be fair, so I can see no reason why it won't run and run. But hopefully the series will be there with the magazine, side by side, all the way. That's how it should be. Yeah, with me on the cover! Forever..."

We caught up with DWM editor Tom Spilsbury, to find out more about David's involvement in the special issue.

"With Doctor Who Magazine reaching its 400th issue - and what a fantastic achievement that is! - I was determined that we should try to do something as big and exciting as possible for the readers who've stuck with us over the last three decades," said Tom. "And what could be more special than doing a photoshoot with the Doctor himself?

"I came up with the idea of having the Doctor actually reading Doctor Who Magazine for the front cover, in a kind of 'Russian doll' effect. I remembered a brilliant Christmas Radio Times from years ago, where Father Christmas was seen to be reading the magazine that he was on the cover of - and it melted my young brain with its brilliance!

"We mentioned the idea to David Tennant, and fortunately, as a DWM reader since the very first issue, he was incredibly enthusiastic. So the DWM team travelled to the Doctor Who studios back in February (during the filming of Journey's End), and David was kind enough to give up a good portion of his lunch hour so that we were able to get the shots we wanted.

"But I also thought it would be nice to honour the origins of the magazine, and I remembered a lovely photo of Tom Baker reading Issue 1, which had been taken to launch the mag, way back in 1979. I asked David if he'd like to try to recreate the shot, and fortunately he knew exactly the right pose to strike. He got it perfectly! He must practice it in front of the mirror every night.

"Having got that perfect pose, we then thought it would be fun to travel back in time and give Tom Baker a copy of Issue 400, so he could recreate his own pose from 1979 with the latest mag... (Oh, okay, then, we used Photoshop for that bit.) But hopefully people will enjoy the end result. I think it perfectly sums up the fun timey-wimey nature of Doctor Who!"

Other highlights of the special issue include: Executive producer Russell T Davies looking back over the last five years, in his most candid DWM interview ever; Gary Gillatt taking an affectionate look at just what makes Doctor Who the best TV show ever; the Watcher charting the surprising, amusing and often bizarre history of Doctor Who Magazine; The Sixth Doctor himself, Colin Baker, joining The Time Team to watch the end of 1986's epic adventure, The Trial of a Time Lord.

Doctor Who Magazine 400 is out now, price £3.99.