Wyndham's Theatre
Honour, starring Diana Rigg at Wyndham's, in 2006
Address	Charing Cross Road
City	Westminster, London
Coordinates	51°30′40″N 0°07′42″W / 51.511111°N 0.128222°W / 51.511111; -0.128222Coordinates: 51°30′40″N 0°07′42″W / 51.511111°N 0.128222°W / 51.511111; -0.128222
Designation	Grade II* listed
Architect	W.G.R. Sprague
Owned by	Delfont Mackintosh Theatres
Capacity	759 on 4 levels
Type	West End theatre
Opened	16 November 1899
Production	Abigail's Party
www.delfontmackintosh.co.uk/Theatres/wyndhams_theatre.php

Wyndham's Theatre is a West End theatre, one of two opened by the actor/manager Charles Wyndham (cp Criterion Theatre). Located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster, it was designed by W.G.R. Sprague about 1898, the architect of six other London theatres between then and 1916. It was designed to seat 759 patrons on three levels although later refurbishment changed it into four. The theatre was Grade II* listed by English Heritage in September 1960.^[1]

Nearby London Underground stations include Leicester Square, Covent Garden, Piccadilly Circus and Charing Cross. London Charing Cross is also a National Rail station.

History[link]

Wyndham had always dreamed of building a theatre of his own and through the admiration of a patron and the financial confidence of friends, he was able to realise his dream when Wyndham's Theatre opened on 16 November 1899, in the presence of the Prince Of Wales. The first play performed there was a revival of T. W. Robertson's David Garrick.

In 1910, Gerald du Maurier began an association with the theatre which lasted 15 years and to include the stage debut of the screen actress Tallulah Bankhead. Du Maurier's small daughter, Daphne, often watched her father's performance from the wings. Thirty years later she presented her own play, The Years Between, on the same stage.

In January 1954, a small-scale musical pastiche, Sandy Wilson's The Boy Friend, which had begun life at the much smaller Players' Theatre, was moved to the Wyndham stage. It ran for 2078 performances, before eventually transferring to Broadway. During the 60s and early 70s the theatre continued to provide a setting for stars such as Alec Guinness (Wise Child), Vanessa Redgrave and Diana Rigg.

The blockbuster of the decade – Godspell - opened at Wyndham's in January 1972 and lasted to October 1974. The original cast included David Essex, Marti Webb and Jeremy Irons.

Wyndham's Theatre just before its opening on 16 November 1900.

Among more recent distinguished productions were the world premiere of The Ride Down Mt. Morgan by Arthur Miller and the British premiere of Edward Albee's Three Tall Women, starring Maggie Smith. Twenty-five years after making her debut there, Diana Rigg returned to play a hugely successful season as Medea. The critically acclaimed comedy, 'Art', by Yasmina Reza, began its record-breaking run at Wyndham's in 1996 with Albert Finney, Tom Courtenay and Ken Stott in the cast. It opened in October 1996, and transferred to the Whitehall Theatre in October 2001.

Madonna made her West End debut there in 2002, performing in a sell-out production of Up For Grabs. This was followed by many other dramatic productions including Dinner and the National Theatre's Democracy during 2004, Holly Hunter in By The Bog Of Cats, American TV star Ruby Wax in a children's stage version of The Witches which ran during March 2005, followed by a controversial limited season of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues which ran without the stars - Sharon Osbourne and her daughter Aimee, who dropped out the night before the production opened. Since then, theatre patrons have seen Sienna Miller star alongside Helen McClory, Reece Shearsmith and Clive Rowe in a new production of Shakespeare's As You Like It.

Delfont Mackintosh Era[link]

In May 2005, the theatre was taken over by Cameron Mackintosh's Delfont-Mackintosh Ltd. which began operations of the venue in September 2005. In October 2005 the theatre presented Tom Stoppard's adaptation of Heroes which starred Richard Griffiths and John Hurt.

The following year the theatre hosted a new production of Joanna Murray-Smith's play Honour starring Diana Rigg, Martin Jarvis and Natascha McElhone, which ran between 7 February and 6 May 2006. It later hosted the West End transfer of the Menier Chocolate Factory's hit production of Stephen Sondheim's musical Sunday in the Park with George, which starred Daniel Evans and Jenna Russell and ran till September. Between December 2006 and April 2007, the theatre presented the West End commercial transfer of Alan Bennett's National Theatre smash hit The History Boys which played to sell-out houses during its run until April 2007.

Bill Kenwright's production of Somerset Maugham's The Letter played through summer 2007, before a short hiatus where Chita Rivera was due to grace the London stage once more, but was forced to postpone. Shadowlands, based on the life story of C.S. Lewis opened in October 2007, starring Charles Dance and Janie Dee, before another return of Alan Bennett's The History Boys from December 2007.

The theatre closed temporarily for final refurbishment works before reopening in September 2008 with Kenneth Branagh starring in Michael Grandage's production of Chekhov's Ivanov in a new version by Tom Stoppard, the opening play in the Donmar West End twelve-month season at Wyndham's, with tickets at Donmar Warehouse prices.^[2]

The Donmar West End season also included Derek Jacobi starring in Twelfth Night, Judi Dench in Yukio Mishima's Madame de Sade and Jude Law in Hamlet, all staged by Grandage.

Recent and present productions[link]

• Dinner (9 December 2003 - 3 April 2004) by Moira Buffini starring Harriet Walter
• Democracy (20 April 2004 - 9 October 2004) by Michael Frayn, starring Colm Meaney
• Dylan Moran: Monster II (1 November 2004 - 13 November 2004)
• By the Bog of Cats (1 December 2004 -26 February 2005) by Marina Carr, starring Holly Hunter
• The Witches (9 March 2005 - 2 April 2005) by David Wood, starring Ruby Wax
• The Vagina Monologues (7 April 2005 - 14 May 2005), by Eve Ensler
• As You Like It (21 June 2005 - 17 September 2005) by William Shakespeare, starring Sienna Miller and Clive Rowe
• Heroes (18 October 2005 - 14 January 2006) by Gerald Sibelyras, starring Richard Griffiths and John Hurt
• Honour (14 February 2006 - 6 May 2006) by Joanna Murray-Smith, starring Diana Rigg and Martin Jarvis
• Sunday in the Park with George (23 May 2006 - 2 September 2006) by Stephen Sondheim, starring Daniel Evans and Jenna Russell
• A Voyage Round My Father (21 September 2006 - 18 November 2006) by Jon Mortimer, starring Derek Jacobi
• The History Boys (18 December 2006 - 14 April 2007) by Alan Bennett
• The Letter (19 April 2007 - 10 August 2007), by Somerset Maughan, starring Jenny Seagrove and Anthony Andrews
• Shadowlands (3 October 2007 - 17 December 2007) by William Nicholson, starring Charles Dance and Janie Dee transferred to Novello Theatre, from 21 December 2007
• The History Boys (20 December 2007 - 26 April 2008) by Alan Bennett, starring Desmond Barrit
• The Shawshank Redemption (14 September 2009 - 29 November 2009)
• An Inspector Calls (3 December 2009 - 10 March 2010) by J B Priestley
• Avenue Q (19 March 2010 - 30 October 2010), after closing at the Gielgud Theatre on March 13, 2010.^[3]
• Bill Bailey Dandelion Mind (2 November 2010 - 8 January 2011) ^[4]
• Clybourne Park (8 February 2011 - 7 May 2011) by Bruce Norris transfers from the Royal Court Theatre
• Much Ado About Nothing (1 June 2011 - 3 September 2011) by William Shakespeare, starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate
• Driving Miss Daisy (5 October 2011 - 17 December 2011) by Alfred Uhry, starring James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave
• Christmas with the Rat Pack: Live from Las Vegas (20 December 2011 - 7 January 2012)
• The Rat Pack: Live From Las Vegas (9 January 2012 - 21 January 2012)
• Jackie Mason - Fearless (13 February 2012 - 17 March 2012)
• The King's Speech (22 March 2012 - 12 May 2012) (stage play of the film)
• Abigail's Party (18 May 2012 - 1 September 2012) by Mike Leigh, starring Jill Halfpenny

Donmar West End at the Wyndham's[link]

• Ivanov (12 September 2008 - 29 November 2008) by Anton Chekhov in a new version by Tom Stoppard, starring Kenneth Branagh and Kevin R McNally
• Twelfth Night (5 December 2008 - 9 March 2009) by William Shakespeare, starring Derek Jacobi
• Madame de Sade (13 March 2009 - 23 May 2009) by Yukio Mishima, starring Dame Judi Dench and Rosamund Pike
• Hamlet (29 May 2009 - 22 August 2009) by William Shakespeare, starring Jude Law

References[link]

• Guide to British Theatres 1750-1950, John Earl and Michael Sell pp. 150 (Theatres Trust, 2000) ISBN 0-7136-5688-3
• Theatre History and (Arthur Lloyd)

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Wyndham's Theatre

• Wyndham's Theatre Website
• Delfont Mackintosh Theatres

David Tennant
David Tennant at Comic-Con 2009
Born	David John McDonald (1971-04-18) 18 April 1971 (age 41) Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1987–present
Spouse	Georgia Moffett (2011–present)
Children	1 daughter, 1 son (adopted)
Parents	Alexander McDonald Helen McDonald (deceased)[1]

David Tennant (born David John McDonald; 18 April 1971) is a Scottish actor. In addition to his work in theatre, including a widely praised Hamlet,^[2][3] Tennant is best known for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, along with the title role in the TV serial Casanova (2005) and as Barty Crouch, Jr., in the film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005).

Early life[link]

Tennant was born in Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland, the son of Essdale Helen (née McLeod) and The Rev. Alexander McDonald (known to family and friends as Sandy McDonald).^[4] He grew up with his brother Blair and sister Karen^[5] in Ralston, Renfrewshire, where his father was the local Church of Scotland minister.^[6][7][8] Tennant's maternal great-grandparents, William and Agnes Blair, were staunch Protestants from Derry in Ulster, the northern province of Ireland, and were among the signatories of the Ulster Covenant in 1912; William was a member of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland. Tennant's maternal grandfather, footballer Archie McLeod, met William and Agnes's daughter Nellie while playing for Derry City.^[9]

At the age of three, Tennant told his parents that he wanted to become an actor because he was a fan of Doctor Who,^[10] but they tried to encourage him to aim for more conventional work.^[5] He watched almost every Doctor Who episode for years, and he spoke to Tom Baker at a book-signing event in Glasgow.^[5] Tennant says he was "absurdly single-minded" in pursuing an acting career. Tennant was educated at Ralston Primary and Paisley Grammar School, where he enjoyed a fruitful relationship with English language teacher Moira Robertson, who was among the first to recognise his potential.^[11] He acted in school productions throughout primary and secondary school.

Tennant's talent at this young age was spotted by actress Edith MacArthur; after seeing his first role at age 11, she told his parents he would become a successful stage actor.^[12] Tennant also attended Saturday classes at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama; at 16, he passed an audition for the Academy, one of their youngest students, and studied there between the ages of 17–20, taking his stage name from the Pet Shop Boys frontman Neil Tennant^[13] after reading a copy of Smash Hits magazine^[14] because there was another David McDonald already on the books of the Equity union. Tennant was flatmates with friend Louise Delamere while at the Academy and gained a bachelor's degree.

Career[link]

Early work[link]

Tennant made his professional acting debut while still in secondary school. When he was 16 he acted in an anti-smoking film made by the Glasgow Health Board which aired on television and was also screened in schools.^[12] The following year, he played a role in an episode of Dramarama. Tennant's first professional role upon graduating from drama school was in a staging of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui costarring Ashley Jensen, one of a few plays in which he performed as part of the agitprop 7:84 Theatre Company. Tennant also made an early television appearance in the Scottish TV sitcom Rab C Nesbitt as a transsexual barmaid called Davina. In the 1990s, Tennant appeared in several plays at the Dundee Repertory Theatre.^[15]

Tennant's first major TV role was as the manic depressive Campbell in the Scottish drama series Takin' Over the Asylum (1994). During filming, Tennant met comic actress and writer Arabella Weir. When he moved to London shortly afterwards he lodged with Weir for five years and became godfather to her youngest child. He has subsequently appeared alongside Weir in many productions; as a guest in her spoof television series, Posh Nosh; in the Doctor Who audio drama Exile—during which Weir played an alternate version of the Doctor—and as panellists on the West Wing Ultimate Quiz on More4 (Weir later guest-starred on Doctor Who itself after Tennant left the series). One of his earliest big screen roles was in Jude (1996), in which he shared a scene with Christopher Eccleston, playing a drunken undergraduate who challenges Eccleston's Jude to prove his intellect. Coincidentally, Eccleston later portrayed the incarnation of The Doctor immediately preceding Tennant's.

Tennant developed his career in the British theatre, frequently performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company. His first Shakespearean role for the RSC was in As You Like It (1996); having auditioned for the role of Orlando, the romantic lead, he was instead cast as the jester Touchstone, which he played in his natural Scottish accent.^[16] He subsequently specialised in comic roles, playing Antipholus of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors and Captain Jack Absolute in The Rivals, although he also played the tragic role of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet.

Tennant also contributed to several audio dramatisations of Shakespeare for the Arkangel Shakespeare series (1998). His roles include a reprisal of his Antipholus of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors, as well as Launcelot Gobbo in The Merchant of Venice, Edgar/Poor Tom in King Lear, and Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, all of which he performs in his natural accent. In 1995, Tennant appeared at the Royal National Theatre, London, playing the role of Nicholas Beckett in Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw. The plot required Tennant to appear naked on stage. In television, Tennant appeared in the first episode of Reeves and Mortimer's revamped Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) in 2000, playing an eccentric artist. This is one of his few TV roles in his native Scottish accent.

During the Christmas season of 2002, he starred in a series of television advertisements for Boots the Chemists.^[17] Tennant began to appear on television more prominently in 2004 and 2005, when he appeared in a dramatisation of He Knew He Was Right (2004), Blackpool (2004), Casanova (2005) and The Quatermass Experiment (2005). In film, he appeared in Stephen Fry's Bright Young Things (2003) and played Barty Crouch Jr. in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005).

[edit] Doctor Who (2005–2010)

Tennant with Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies (left), regular director Euros Lyn (centre right), and executive producer Julie Gardner (right) at Comic-Con in July 2009

Doctor Who returned to British screens in 2005, with Christopher Eccleston playing the role of the Ninth Doctor. After Eccleston's announcement on 31 March 2005 that he would not be returning for a second series, the BBC confirmed Tennant as his replacement in a press release on 16 April 2005. He made his first, brief appearance as the Tenth Doctor in the episode "The Parting of the Ways" (2005) at the end of the regeneration scene, and also appeared in a special 7-minute mini-episode shown as part of the 2005 Children in Need appeal, broadcast on 18 November 2005. He began filming the new series of Doctor Who in late July 2005. His first full-length outing as the Doctor was a 60-minute special, "The Christmas Invasion", first broadcast on Christmas Day 2005.

Tennant has expressed enthusiasm about fulfilling his childhood dream. He remarked to an interviewer for GWR FM, "Who wouldn't want to be the Doctor? I've even got my own TARDIS!" In 2006, readers of Doctor Who Magazine voted Tennant 'Best Doctor!', over perennial favourite Tom Baker.^[18] In 2007, Tennant's Doctor was voted the "coolest character" on UK television in a Radio Times survey.^[19] When Tennant was cast as Eccleston's successor, he had wanted to use his native Scottish accent and become 'the first kilted Doctor' according to an interview in the Daily Star, but writer Russell T Davies did not want the Doctor's accent 'touring the regions', so he used "estuary" English instead.

Tennant had previously had a small role in the BBC's animated Doctor Who webcast Scream of the Shalka. Not originally cast in the production, Tennant happened to be recording a radio play in a neighbouring studio, and when he discovered what was being recorded next door managed to convince the director to give him a small role. This personal enthusiasm for the series had also been expressed by his participation in several audio plays based on the Doctor Who television series which had been produced by Big Finish Productions, although he did not play the Doctor in any of these productions. His first such role was in the Seventh Doctor audio Colditz, where he played a Nazi lieutenant guard at Colditz Castle. In 2004 Tennant played a lead role in the Big Finish audio play series Dalek Empire III. He played the part of Galanar, a young man who is given an assignment to discover the secrets of the Daleks. In 2005, he starred in UNIT: The Wasting for Big Finish, recreating his role of Brimmicombe-Wood from a Doctor Who Unbound play, Sympathy for the Devil. In both of these audio productions Tennant worked alongside Doctor Who alumnus Nicholas Courtney, who reprised the character of Sir Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. He also played an unnamed Time Lord in another Doctor Who Unbound play Exile. UNIT: The Wasting, was recorded between Tennant getting the role of the Doctor and it being announced. He also played the title role in Big Finish's adaptation of Bryan Talbot's The Adventures of Luther Arkwright (2005). In 2006, he recorded abridged audio books of The Stone Rose by Jacqueline Rayner, The Feast of the Drowned by Stephen Cole and The Resurrection Casket by Justin Richards, for BBC Worldwide.

He made his directorial debut on the Doctor Who Confidential episode that accompanies Steven Moffat's episode "Blink", entitled "Do You Remember The First Time?", which aired on 9 June 2007. In 2007, Tennant's Tenth Doctor appeared with Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor in a Doctor Who special for Children in Need, written by Steven Moffat and entitled "Time Crash". This was the first "multi-Doctor" story in the series since The Two Doctors in 1985 (not counting the 1993 special Dimensions in Time).^[20] Tennant also later performed alongside Davison's daughter, Georgia Moffett, in the 2008 episode "The Doctor's Daughter" with her taking the titular role as Jenny.

Tennant also featured as the Doctor in an animated version of Doctor Who for Totally Doctor Who, The Infinite Quest, which aired on CBBC. He also starred as the Doctor in another animated six-part Doctor Who series, Dreamland.^[21] Tennant guest starred as the Doctor in a two-part story in Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures, broadcast in October 2009.^[22] Tennant continued to play the Tenth Doctor into the revived programme's fourth series in 2008. However, on 29 October 2008, Tennant announced that he would be stepping down from the role after three full series.^[23] He played the Doctor in four special episodes in 2009, before his final episode aired on 1 January 2010. The Daily Mirror reported that Tennant was forbidden from attending Doctor Who fan conventions while playing the role. This was done to avoid the chance that Tennant could accidentally let slip any plot points during filming of the series.^[24] He said at the Children in Need concert that his favourite Doctor Who story is Genesis of the Daleks from the Tom Baker era, while another interview included him mentioning that his favourite classic monsters were the Zygons; although he never appeared in a television story with the Zygons, his Doctor confronted them in the novel Sting of the Zygons.

Other television roles (2005–present)[link]

While playing the Doctor, Tennant was also in the early December 2005 ITV drama Secret Smile. His performance as Jimmy Porter in Look Back in Anger at the Theatre Royal, Bath and Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh was recorded by the National Video Archive of Performance for the Victoria and Albert Museum Theatre Collection. He revived this performance for the anniversary of the Royal Court Theatre in a rehearsed reading. In January 2006, he took a one-day break from shooting Doctor Who to play Richard Hoggart in a dramatisation of the 1960 Lady Chatterley's Lover obscenity trial, The Chatterley Affair. The play was written by Andrew Davies and directed by Doctor Who's James Hawes for the digital television channel BBC Four. Hoggart's son Simon Hoggart praised Tennant's performance in The Guardian newspaper.^[25]

On 25 February 2007, Tennant starred in Recovery, a 90-minute BBC1 drama written by Tony Marchant. Tennant played Alan, a self-made building site manager who attempted to rebuild his life after suffering a debilitating brain injury. His costar in the drama was friend Sarah Parish, with whom he had previously appeared in Blackpool and an episode of Doctor Who. She joked that "we're like George and Mildred – in 20 years' time we'll probably be doing a ropey old sitcom in a terraced house in Preston."^[26] Later in 2007 he starred in Learners, a BBC comedy drama written by and starring Jessica Hynes (another Doctor Who costar, in the episodes "Human Nature", "The Family of Blood" and "The End of Time"), in which he played a Christian driving instructor who became the object of a student's affection. Learners was broadcast on BBC One on 11 November 2007. Tennant had a cameo appearance as the Doctor in the 2007 finale episode of the BBC/HBO comedy series Extras alongside Ricky Gervais. In November 2008 Tennant played Sir Arthur Eddington in the BBC and HBO biopic Einstein and Eddington, which was filmed in Cambridge and Hungary.^[27]

In 2009 he worked on a film version of the RSC's 2008 Hamlet for BBC2. From October 2009, he hosted the Masterpiece Contemporary programming strand on the American Public Broadcasting Service.^[28] In December 2009, he filmed the lead in an NBC pilot, Rex Is Not Your Lawyer, playing Rex, a Chicago lawyer who starts to coach clients to represent themselves when he starts suffering panic attacks.^[29] The pilot was not picked up and the project was shelved.^[30][31] In October 2010 he starred as Dave, a man struggling to raise five children after the death of his partner, in the British drama Single Father. For this role he was nominated as Best Actor at the Royal Television Society Programme Awards 2010.

In 2011 he starred in the BBC Two British TV film United, which tells the story of the Manchester United "Busby Babes" team and the 1958 Munich air disaster, playing coach and assistant manager Jimmy Murphy.^[32] In September 2011, he appeared in a guest role in one episode of the comedy series This is Jinsy, and also started filming True Love, a semi-improvised BBC1 drama series, on location in Margate, Kent. The series is due to air in June 2012. In April 2012, Tennant will play the lead in a one-off drama The Minor Character for Sky Arts.^[33] In April 2012 it was announced that he will star as Jean-François Mercier in BBC4 drama series Spies of Warsaw, which films in Poland between April and June.^[34]

Other work (2007–present)[link]

Tennant was the "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" on Top Gear in December 2007, where he claimed to have unsuccessfully auditioned for a role on Taggart 26 times.^[35] Tennant is the voice behind the 2007 advertising campaign for catalogue retailer Argos, and appeared in adverts for The Proclaimers' 2008 album and learndirect in June 2008 (using his natural Scottish accent in both). Tennant also lent his voice to adverts for Tesco Mobile, Nintendo Wii, and American Express.

Tennant appeared in Derren Brown's Trick or Treat.^[36] In the 26 April–2 May issue of TV & Satellite Week, Brown is quoted as saying: "One of the appeals of Doctor Who for David is time travel, so I wanted to give him that experience. He was open and up for it, and I got a good reaction. He's a real screamer!" The episode aired on Channel 4 on 16 May 2008, and showed Tennant apparently predicting future events correctly by using automatic writing. Tennant also returned for the final episode of the series with the rest of the participants from the other episodes in the series to take part in one final experiment.

Tennant at Stratford-upon-Avon

Tennant appeared in the 2008 episode "Holofile 703: Us and Phlegm" of the radio series Nebulous (a parody of Doctor Who) in the role of Doctor Beep, using his Lothian accent. Also in 2008, Tennant voiced the character of Hamish the Hunter in the 2008 English language DVD rerelease of the 2006 animated Norwegian film, Free Jimmy, alongside Woody Harrelson. The English language version of the film has dialogue written by Simon Pegg, who also starred in it as a main voice actor. In early 2009, Tennant narrated the digital planetarium space dome film "We are Astronomers"^[37] commissioned by the UK's National Space Centre. On 13 March 2009, he presented Red Nose Day 2009 with Davina McCall. He joined Franz Ferdinand onstage to play the guitar on their song "No You Girls" on a special Comic Relief edition of Top of the Pops. In summer 2009, Tennant filmed St. Trinian's II: The Legend of Fritton's Gold. The film was released in December 2009.

At the October 2009 Spooky Empire convention, John Landis announced Tennant's casting in his movie Burke and Hare, starring alongside Simon Pegg.^[38] In January 2010 it was announced Tennant had dropped out of the film (replaced by Andy Serkis) due to scheduling problems. In November 2009, Tennant cohosted the Absolute Radio Breakfast Show with Christian O'Connell for three consecutive days.^[39] He returned to cohost the show for one day in October 2010^[40] and again in September 2011. Tennant also provides the narration and all the character voices for the audio book versions of the Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III stories by Cressida Cowell such as How to Train Your Dragon. In these audio books, Tennant employs his vocal skills to create a vast cast of recognisably distinct voices. Some of his most memorable characterisations include the Norfolk yokel of Norbert the Nutjob, the broad Glaswegian of Gobber the Belch, the hissing and whining of Toothless the Dragon and the sly insinuations of Alvin the Treacherous. He also played the role of Spitelout in the recent animated film adaption of said books.

On 7 March 2010, he also appeared as George in a one-part BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Of Mice and Men in the Classic Serial strand.^[41] Tennant appeared alongside former costar Catherine Tate in the Shakespeare comedy Much Ado About Nothing at London's Wyndham's Theatre from 16 May 2011 to 3 September 2011.^[42] For his performance as Benedick he won the BroadwayWorld UK Award for Best Leading Actor in a Play.^[43] In September 2011, it was announced that Tennant will voice a character in the movie adaptation of Postman Pat named You Know You're the One with a planned 3D theatrical release for spring 2013.^[44]

In October 2011, Tennant started shooting the semi-improvised comedy film Nativity 2: The Second Coming in Coventry.^[45][46] Tennant plays two roles: the main character, put-upon teacher Mr Peterson, and his "golden boy" twin brother and rival.^[47] In April 2012, Tennant was the subject of a Virgin Media advert that was voluntarily withdrawn after a complaint lodged by BBC Worldwide. The advert, part of a multi-million pound campaign featuring Tennant, broke the corporation's guidelines by featuring references to Doctor Who that appeared to be a commercial endorsement of the service.^[48]

Royal Shakespeare Company (2008–2009)[link]

Despite his recent focus on television work, Tennant has described theatre work as his "default way of being".^[49] It was announced on 30 August 2007 that he would join the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), to play Hamlet (alongside Patrick Stewart) and Berowne (in Love's Labours Lost) during 2008.^[50] From August to November 2008 he appeared at the Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon as Hamlet, playing that role in repertory with Berowne that October and November.

Hamlet transferred to the Novello Theatre in London's West End in December 2008, but Tennant suffered a prolapsed disc during previews and was unable to perform from 8 December 2008 until 2 January 2009, during which time the role was played by his understudy Edward Bennett.^[51] He returned to his role in the production on 3 January 2009, and appeared until the run ended on 10 January. On 12 April 2011, a photograph of Tennant as Hamlet featured on a stamp issued by the Royal Mail to mark the RSC's fiftieth anniversary.^[52] In January 2012, Tennant was appointed to the Royal Shakespeare Company board, to be on the selection committee interviewing and choosing the new artistic director.^[53][54]

Personal life[link]

Tennant married actress Georgia Moffett on 30 December 2011.^[55] They have a daughter, Olive, born in March 2011,^[56][57] and he adopted her then nine-year-old son, Tyler, in September 2011.^[58] Tennant does not discuss his personal life, especially his relationships, in interviews.^[59] "Relationships are hard enough with the people you're having them with, let alone talking about them in public," he said in December 2009.^[60] He believes that religion "must have" shaped his character, and he is an occasional churchgoer.^[61]

In 2008 Tennant was voted "Greenest Star on the Planet" in an online vote held by Playhouse Disney as part of the Playing for the Planet Awards.^[62] Later that year he underwent surgery for a prolapsed disc. Tennant is a supporter of the Labour Party and appeared in a party political broadcast for them in 2005. In 2010 he declared his support for then UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown,^[63] and in April 2010 he lent his voice to a Labour Party election broadcast.^[64] He is a celebrity patron of the Association for International Cancer Research.

Popularity[link]

In December 2005, The Stage newspaper listed Tennant at No. 6 in its "Top Ten" listing of the most influential UK television artists of the year, citing his roles in Blackpool, Casanova, Secret Smile and Doctor Who.^[65] In January 2006, readers of the British gay and lesbian newspaper The Pink Paper voted Tennant the "Sexiest Man in the Universe" over David Beckham and Brad Pitt.^[66] A poll of over 10,000 women for the March 2006 issue of New Woman magazine ranked him 20th in their list of the "Top 100 Men".^[67] In October 2006, Tennant was named as "Scotland's most stylish male" in the Scottish Style Awards.^[68] He was named "Coolest Man on TV" of 2007 in a Radio Times survey. He also won the National Television Awards award for Most Popular Actor in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010. He was voted 16th Sexiest Man In The World by a 2008 Cosmopolitan survey.^[69]

He was ranked the 24th most influential person in the British media, in the 9 July 2007 MediaGuardian supplement of The Guardian. Tennant appeared in the paper's annual media rankings in 2006.

In December 2008 Tennant was named as one of the most influential people in show business by British theatre and entertainment magazine The Stage, making him the fifth actor to achieve a ranking in the top 20 (in a list typically dominated by producers and directors). One of the editors for The Stage said that Tennant placed highly on the list because he was "the biggest box office draw in recent memory".^[70]

The popularity of Tennant has led to impersonations of him on various social networking sites, leading the BBC to issue a statement making it clear that Tennant does not use any of these sites and any account or message purporting to be or from him is fake.^[71]

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

Narration and personal appearances[link]

Film[link]

Radio and CD audio drama[link]

Theatre[link]