The Sunday Express‘ TV Editor, David Stephenson, interviews Russell in today’s edition…
DAVID TENNANT WILL BE DR WHO ‘FOR EVER’
David Tennant may still be battling Cybermen and popping in and out of the Tardis when he is 70, says the show’s writer.
The actor has so far refused to be drawn on whether he will still stay with the show beyond next year’s four specials, though the BBC want him for at least another series.
But in an exclusive interview, outgoing Doctor Who supremo Russell T Davies said: “David may never leave, he could go on for ever. I haven’t talked to him about leaving. Maybe it will happen. Maybe he’ll be 70 and have to be taken off the set.”
Davies continued: “David has brought everything to Doctor Who. I remember exactly where I was when I saw him audition for Casonova [also written by Davies]. I thought, ‘Here is someone saying the lines exactly as they are written.’ But mainly it was the sense of humour. A lot of straight men don’t handle humour well, but he can do the tragedy, too.”
Davies, whose book The Writer’s Tale, about his work on Doctor Who series four, is just out, also promised a show-stopping Christmas special this year. He revealed: “It’s called The Next Doctor, and there is a major plot twist at the end. We’re even thinking of not having a press screening, because we don’t think anyone will be able to keep it secret.
“For the first time, we have two men together as leads. It’s a small, focused idea, a little different.” The episode, featuring actor David Morrissey and actress Dervla Kirwin, sees the return of the dreaded Cybermen during a Victorian Christmas.
For the first time, Davies said he would consider doing a Doctor Who film: “It’s going to happen one day just because people keep saying it.”
He said he is quitting the show for “just a change, to do something different”, but insisted, “Nothing will top Doctor Who. I will never work on another family drama like that. You remember what it was like for you as a child. A memory for a kid is there for life. I was that kid.”
Doctor Who: The Writer’s Tale by Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook, BBC Books, £30
