Outside the Royal Albert Hall during the BBC Proms season of 2008

The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London. Founded in 1895, each season currently consists of more than 70 concerts in the Albert Hall, a series of chamber concerts at Cadogan Hall, additional Proms in the Park events across the United Kingdom on the last night, and associated educational and children's events. In 2009 the total number of concerts reached 100 for the first time. In the context of classical music festivals, Jiří Bělohlávek has described the Proms as "the world's largest and most democratic musical festival".^[1]

Prom is short for promenade concert, a term which originally referred to outdoor concerts in London's pleasure gardens, where the audience was free to stroll around while the orchestra was playing. In fact this tradition has been revived in parks and stately homes around the UK at promenade concerts such as the Battle Proms. In the context of the BBC Proms Promming now refers to the use of the standing areas inside the hall (the arena and gallery) for which ticket prices are much lower than for the reserved seating. Single-concert Promming tickets can be bought, with few exceptions, only on the day of the concert, which can give rise to long queues for well-known artists or works. Proms concert-goers, particularly those who stand, are sometimes described as "Promenaders", but are most commonly referred to as "Prommers". Prommers can buy full- or half-season tickets instead for guaranteed entry (until 20 minutes before the concert is due to start), although not the assurance of a particular standing position. A number of Prommers are particularly keen in their attendance. In 1997, one programme in the BBC documentary series Modern Times covered this dedicated following of enthusiasts.

History[link]

A Promenade concert in the Royal Albert Hall, 2004. The bust of Henry Wood can be seen in front of the organ.

Origins and Henry Wood[link]

Promenade concerts had existed in London's pleasure gardens since the mid 18th century, but on 10 August 1895 impresario Robert Newman arranged the first series of indoor promenade concerts, in the Queen's Hall in Langham Place. Newman's idea was to encourage an audience for concert hall music who, though not normally attending classical concerts, would be attracted by the low ticket prices and more informal atmosphere. In addition to promenading, eating, drinking and smoking were all allowed. He stated his goal as follows:

I am going to run nightly concerts and train the public by easy stages. Popular at first, gradually raising the standard until I have created a public for classical and modern music.^[2]

With financial backing from the otolaryngologist Dr George Cathcart, Newman hired Henry Joseph Wood as the conductor for this series of concerts, called "Mr Robert Newman's Promenade Concerts".^[3][4] Wood built the "Queen's Hall Orchestra" as the ensemble devoted to performing the promenade concerts. Although the concerts gained a popular following and reputation, Newman went bankrupt in 1902, and the banker Edgar Speyer took over the expense of funding the concerts. In 1914, anti-German feeling forced Speyer out of his post. After Speyer, music publishers Chappell & Co. took control of the concerts.^[5]

Newman continued to work in the artistic planning of these promenade concerts until his sudden death in November 1926. With time, Wood became the name which was most closely associated with the concerts. As conductor from that first concert, Wood was largely responsible for expanding the repertoire heard in later concerts, such that by the 1920s the concerts had grown from being made up of largely more popular, less demanding works, to presenting music by contemporary composers such as Claude Debussy, Richard Strauss and Ralph Vaughan Williams. A bronze bust of Wood, belonging to the Royal Academy of Music,^[6] is placed in front of the Organ for the whole season. While now known as the BBC Proms, the text on the tickets (along with the headline "BBC Proms" next to the BBC logo), still says "BBC Music presents the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts".

In 1927, the BBC – later based at Broadcasting House next to the hall – took over the running of the concerts. When the BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) was formed in 1930, it became the main orchestra for the concerts. At this time the season consisted of nights dedicated to particular composers; Mondays were Wagner, Fridays were Beethoven, with other major composers being featured on other days. There were no Sunday performances.

With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the BBC withdrew its support. The Proms continued though, under private sponsorship, until the Queen's Hall was gutted by an air raid in 1941 (its site is now the St George's Hotel and BBC Henry Wood House). The following year, the Proms moved to their current home, the Royal Albert Hall, and the BBC took over once more. In 1944, however, increased danger to the Royal Albert Hall from bombing meant that the Proms moved again, this time to the Bedford Corn Exchange. This venue had been the home of the BBC Symphony Orchestra since 1941 and played host to the Proms until the end of the war. After the war, other orchestras were invited to perform in the Proms, such that the BBC SO was no longer the sole orchestra responsible for all Proms concerts.

Post-war[link]

Wood continued his work with the Proms until his death in 1944. In the years after the war, Sir Adrian Boult and Basil Cameron took on principal conducting duties for the Proms until the advent of Malcolm Sargent as Proms chief conductor in 1947. Sargent held this post until 1966. He was noted for his immaculate appearance (evening dress, carnation) and his witty addresses where he good-naturedly chided the noisy Prommers. Sir Malcolm championed choral music and classical and British composers, especially Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. The charity founded in his name, CLIC Sargent, continues to hold a special Promenade Concert each year shortly after the main season ends. CLIC Sargent, the Musicians' Benevolent Fund and further musical charities (chosen each year) also benefit from thousands of pounds in donations from Prommers after most concerts. When asking for donations, Prommers from the Arena regularly announce to the audience the running donations total at concert intervals through the season, or before the concert when there is no interval.

After Wood's death, Julian Herbage acted as de facto principal administrator of The Proms for a number of years, as a freelance employee after his retirement from the BBC, with assistance from such staff as Edward Clark and Kenneth Wright.^[7] During the tenure of William Glock as Controller of the Proms, beginning in 1960, the Proms repertory expanded both forwards in time, to encompass then contemporary and avant-garde composers such as Boulez, Berio, Carter, Dallapiccola, Peter Maxwell Davies, Gerhard, Henze, Ligeti, Lutosławski, Lutyens, Maw, Messiaen, Nono, Stockhausen, and Tippett, as well as backwards to include music by past composers such as Purcell, Cavalli, Monteverdi, Byrd, Palestrina, Dufay, Dunstaple and Machaut, as well as less-often performed works of Johann Sebastian Bach and Joseph Haydn.^[8] From the 1960s, the number of guest orchestras at the Proms also began to increase, with the first major international conductors (Leopold Stokowski, Georg Solti and Carlo Maria Giulini) performing in 1963, and the first foreign orchestra, the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, performing in 1966. Since that time, almost every major international orchestra, conductor and soloist has performed at the Proms. In 1970, Soft Machine's appearance led to press attention and comment as the first "pop" band to perform there.

Since 1990[link]

The Proms continue today, and still present newly commissioned music alongside pieces more central to the repertoire and early music. Innovations continue, with pre-Prom talks, lunchtime chamber concerts, children's Proms, Proms in the Park either appearing, or being featured more heavily over the past few years. In the UK, all concerts are broadcast on BBC Radio 3, an increasing number are televised on BBC Four with some also shown on BBC One and BBC Two. The theme tune played at the beginning of each programme broadcast on television is an extract from the end of the "Red" movement of Arthur Bliss's A Colour Symphony. It is also possible to hear the concerts live from the BBC Proms website. The Last Night is also broadcast in many countries around the world.

In 1996, a related series of eight lunchtime chamber concerts was started, taking place on Mondays during the Proms season. In their first year these were held in the Britten Hall of the Royal College of Music (just across Prince Consort Road from the Albert Hall). The following year they moved slightly further afield, to the Henry Cole Lecture Theatre at the Victoria and Albert Museum. In 2005 they moved further again, to the new Cadogan Hall, just off London's Sloane Square. These allow the Proms to include music which is not suitable for the vast spaces of the Albert Hall.

From 1998 to 2007, the Blue Peter Prom, in partnership with long-running BBC television programme Blue Peter, was an annual fixture.^[9] Aimed at children and families, the Prom is informal, including audience participation, jokes, and popular classics.^[10] High demand for tickets – which are among the lowest priced in the season – saw this Prom be split in 2004 into two Proms with identical content.^[11] In 2008, the Blue Peter Prom was replaced with a Doctor Who Prom.^[12]

The 2004 season also featured the Hall's newly rebuilt pipe organ. It took two years to complete the task (2002–2004) and was the work of Noel Mander, Ltd., of London. It was the first complete restoration of the instrument since Harrison and Harrison's work in 1936.

The tradition of Promming remains an important aspect of the festival, with over 1000 standing places available for each concert, either in the central arena (rather like the groundlings in the pit at Shakespeare's Globe) or high in the hall's gallery. Promming tickets cost the same for all concerts (£5 as of 2010), providing a considerably cheaper option for the more popular events. Since the tickets cannot be bought in advance (although there are season tickets and weekend passes available), they provide a way of getting in to otherwise sold-out concerts.^[13][14]

In 2010, the Proms Archive was introduced on the BBC Proms webpage, to allow for systematic searching of all works that have been performed, and all artists who have appeared, at The Proms over its history. On 1 September 2011 a Prom given by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra was severely affected by interruptions from pro-Palestinian protesters.^[15] While the Palestine Solidarity Campaign had urged a boycott, they denied being behind the disruption inside the Royal Albert Hall. For the first time ever, the BBC took a Prom concert off the air.^[16]

Proms seasons: 2006-2011[link]

The Proms 2005. Most people sit, while Promenaders stand in front of the orchestra. The Royal Albert Hall Organ is in the background.

2006 season[link]

The 2006 season (the 112th) marked the 250th birthday celebrations of Mozart and the centenary of Shostakovich's birth. New initiatives included four Saturday matinee concerts at the Cadogan Hall and the chance for audience members to get involved with The Voice, a collaborative piece performed in two Proms on 29 July. On 3 September 2006, a concert was cancelled due to a fire.^[17] The season saw the launch of a venture called the Proms Family Orchestra in which children and their extended families can make music with BBC musicians.^[18]

2007 season[link]

The 2007 season ran from 13 July–8 September 2007, with the first concert beginning with Walton's Portsmouth Point and included Elgar's Cello Concerto performed by Paul Watkins and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Following the previous year's Voice day, brass instruments were specially featured with two concerts on 28 July 2007. Early press coverage focused heavily on the fact that musical theatre star Michael Ball would be the central performer in a concert on 27 August and a concert of British film music on 14 July. This led to media accusations of "dumbing down", despite Nicholas Kenyon's defence of the programme.^[19][20][21] Anniversaries marked in this Proms season included the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sir Edward Elgar, the 100th anniversary of the death of Edvard Grieg and the 50th anniversary of the death of Jean Sibelius as well as marking 80 years since the first BBC sponsorship of the Proms. The series also included an additional series of four Saturday matinee concerts at Cadogan Hall.

The 2007 season was Nicholas Kenyon's last season as controller of the BBC Proms, before he became Managing Director at the Barbican Centre from October 2007.^[22] Roger Wright became controller of the Proms in October 2007, whilst retaining responsibility for BBC Radio 3 and taking up a broader role controlling the BBC's classical music output across all media.^[23]

2008 season[link]

The 2008 season ran from 18 July to 13 September 2008. The BBC released details of the season slightly earlier than usual, on 9 April 2008.^[24] Composers whose anniversaries were marked include:

• Ralph Vaughan Williams, 2008 being 50 years since his death
• Elliott Carter and Olivier Messiaen, each in his centenary year
• Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, to mark the centenary of his death
• Karlheinz Stockhausen, whose 80th birthday would have fallen during the season (he died on 5 December 2007).

The celebration of Stockhausen was centred on two large-scale concerts on 2 August 2008, and complementing Vaughan Williams's interest in folk music, the first Sunday was given over to a celebration of various aspects of British folk, including free events in Kensington Gardens and the Albert Hall, and ending with the first-ever céilidh in the Albert Hall itself.^[25]

Other changes included additional pre-Prom talks and events. For the first time, there was a related talk or event before every Prom, held in the Royal College of Music. The popular family-oriented Prom this year became the Doctor Who Prom, (in place of the Blue Peter Prom of recent years).^[26] The Doctor Who Prom included a mini-episode of Doctor Who, "Music of the Spheres".

Just over a month before the announcement, Margaret Hodge, a Minister of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport suggested "that the Proms was one of several big cultural events that many people did not feel comfortable attending" and advocated an increase in multicultural works and an effort to broaden the audience. Her comments received wide criticism in the musical world and media as being a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the Proms, with Gordon Brown even distancing himself from her remarks.^[27]

2009 season[link]

In the 2009 season, which ran from 17 July to 12 September 2009, the total number of concerts reached 100 for the first time. The principal anniversary composers included:

• George Frideric Handel (250th anniversary of his death)
• Joseph Haydn (200th anniversary of his death)
• Felix Mendelssohn (200th anniversary of his birth)
• Henry Purcell (350th anniversary of his birth)

Other composer anniversaries noted in the 2009 Proms included:

• Louis Andriessen (70th birthday)
• Harrison Birtwistle (75th birthday)
• John Casken (60th birthday)
• George Crumb (80th birthday)
• Frederick Delius (75th anniversary of his death)
• Edward Elgar (75th anniversary of his death)
• Jonathan Harvey (70th birthday)
• Gustav Holst (75th anniversary of his death)
• Albert Ketèlbey (50th anniversary of his death)
• Bohuslav Martinů (50th anniversary of his death)
• Peter Maxwell Davies (75th birthday)
• Heitor Villa-Lobos (50th anniversary of his death)

The humorist and music impresario Gerard Hoffnung was also remembered with the performance in the Last Night of Malcolm Arnold's A Grand Grand Overture, which was commissioned for the first Hoffnung Music Festival.^[18] The 2009 Proms featured Bollywood music for the first time, as part of a day-long series of concerts and events also covering Indian classical music. Performers in the day included Ram Narayan, Rajan and Sajan Mishra, and Shaan.^[28] Noted historical anniversaries covered in the 2009 Proms included the 75th anniversary of the MGM film musical, and the 10th year of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.^[29][30][31] There was a child-oriented Prom to mark the Darwin bicentenary as well as a Free Family Prom including the Proms Family Orchestra.^[18]

2010 season[link]

The 2010 Proms season ran from 16 July to 11 September. The principal anniversary composers included:

• Frédéric Chopin (200th anniversary of his birth)
• Gustav Mahler (150th anniversary of his birth)
• Robert Schumann (200th anniversary of his birth)
• Stephen Sondheim (80th birthday)
• Arvo Pärt (75th birthday)
• Rodgers and Hammerstein (50th anniversary of the death of Oscar Hammerstein II)

Other anniversaries of composers featured at The Proms included:

• Thomas Arne (300th anniversary of his birth)
• Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (200th anniversary of his birth)
• Samuel Barber (100th anniversary of his birth)
• Alban Berg (125th anniversary of his birth)
• George Benjamin (50th birthday)
• James Dillon (60th birthday)
• Bayan Northcott (70th birthday)
• Gunther Schuller (85th birthday)
• Mark-Anthony Turnage (50th birthday)
• Hugo Wolf (150th anniversary of his birth)

In addition, Hubert Parry and Alexander Scriabin received particular focus.^[32] One day was dedicated particularly to Sir Henry Wood, including a recreation of the 1910 Last Night.^[33] For families, the Doctor Who Prom, first introduced in 2008, received new renditions hosted by the newest Doctor (Matt Smith) and his companions Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill).^[34][35] The booking system was also revised with a new online system to allow ticket buyers to set up a personalised Proms plan in advance to speed up the booking process.^[36]

2011 season[link]

The 2011 Proms season began on 15 July 2011 and ran until 10 September 2011. The principal anniversary composers included:

• Percy Grainger (50th anniversary of his death)
• Franz Liszt (200th anniversary of his birth; 125th anniversary of his death)
• Gustav Mahler (100th anniversary of his death)
• Tomás Luis de Victoria (400th anniversary of his death)

Other anniversaries of composers featured at The Proms included:

• Richard Rodney Bennett (75th birthday)
• Marc-André Dalbavie (50th birthday)
• Marcel Dupré (125th anniversary of his birth)
• Henri Dutilleux (95th birthday)
• Sofia Gubaidulina (80th birthday)
• Bernard Herrmann (100th anniversary of his birth)
• Stan Kenton (100th anniversary of his birth)
• Colin Matthews (65th birthday)
• Steve Reich (75th birthday)

The music of Frank Bridge also received a particular non-anniversary-related focus. Other notable performances included the first Proms performance of Havergal Brian's Symphony No. 1 (Brian) ('The Gothic'), which was also the 6th live performance ever,^[37] and subsequently released on a Hyperion commercial recording.^[38] The 2011 Proms season also featured new works by Sally Beamish, Harrison Birtwistle, Peter Maxwell Davies, Pascal Dusapin, Graham Fitkin, Thomas Larcher, Kevin Volans, Judith Weir, and Stevie Wishart.

The 2011 Proms also featured the first ever 'Comedy Prom' hosted by comedian and pianist Tim Minchin, as well as the debut of the Spaghetti Western Orchestra.

Last Night of the Proms[link]

The Last Night of the Proms celebrates British tradition with patriotic music of the United Kingdom.^[39][40]

Many people's perception of the Proms is taken from the Last Night, although this concert is very different from the others. It usually takes place on the second Saturday in September, and is broadcast in the UK on BBC2 (first half) and BBC1 (second half). The concert is traditionally in a lighter, 'winding-down' vein, with popular classics being followed by a series of British patriotic pieces in the second half of the concert. This sequence traditionally begins with Edward Elgar's Pomp & Circumstance March No. 1 (to part of which Land of Hope and Glory is sung), and continues with Sir Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songs, which culminates in Thomas Arne's Rule, Britannia!. However, the Fantasia has not featured since 2007, though Rule, Britannia! has retained its place in the programme in its own right. The concert concludes with Hubert Parry's Jerusalem (a setting of a poem by William Blake), and the British national anthem. The repeat of the Elgar march at the Last Night can be traced to the spontaneous audience demand for an encore at its premiere at the 1901 Proms.^[41] The closing sequence of the second half became fully established in 1954 during Sargent's tenure as chief conductor of The Proms.^[42] The Prommers have made a tradition of singing Auld Lang Syne after the end of the concert, but it is not in the programme. However, when James Loughran, a Scot, conducted at the Last Night in the 1970s he did include the piece in the programme.

Tickets are highly sought after. Promming tickets are the same price as for other concerts during the season, but tickets for seats are more expensive. To buy a seat in advance, it is necessary to have bought tickets for at least five other Proms in the season to have a chance of getting a Last Night ticket, and either an advance booking must include those five concerts, plus an application for a Last Night ticket, or the ticket stubs must be presented at the box office when purchasing a Last Night ticket for that season; tickets can only be purchased in an equivalent (or lower) price band to that for the previous tickets. Once the advance booking period ends, there is no requirement to have booked for additional concerts, but the concert is generally sold out by this time, though returns may be available. For standing places, full season tickets automatically include last night admission, half-season ticket holders have access to a special distribution of tickets, but must purchase their Last Night ticket in addition to the cost of the season ticket; day Prommers also have to present five ticket stubs at the box office. Some standing tickets are sold on the day, just as for other concerts during the season.^[43] In the post-War period, with the growing popularity of the "Last Night", the only way to obtain tickets was through a postal ballot system where prospective buyers submitted an application well in advance, along with a stamped and addressed reply envelope. The lucky ones received their tickets by return. A ballot remains for the chance to win 1 of 100 stalls seats.^[43] Prior to 2009, the requirement was for six concerts in addition to the Last Night when purchasing a ticket in advance.

Prommers with tickets are likely to queue up much earlier than usual (many overnight, and in past years, some slept outside the hall up to three weeks to guard their place in the queue) in order to ensure a good place to stand in the hall. The resulting camaraderie adds to the atmosphere. Fancy dress is an optional extra: from dinner jackets to patriotic T-shirts. Many use the occasion for an exuberant display of Britishness. Union Flags are carried and waved by the Prommers, especially during Rule Britannia. Flags (mostly national flags and regional flags), balloons and party poppers are all welcome. Sir Henry Wood's bust is crowned with a laurel chaplet by representatives of the Promenaders, who often wipe an imaginary bead of sweat from his forehead or make some similar gentle visual joke.

Another tradition of the Last Night is that near the end, the conductor makes a speech thanking the musicians and audiences, mentioning the main themes covered through the season, noting the cumulative season's donations collected by the Promenaders' Musical Charities raised over the season, and announcing the date of the First Night of the Proms for the next season. The tradition of the Last Night speech dates from 1941, when Sir Henry Wood gave the first such speech at the close of that Proms season, the first at the Royal Albert Hall, where he thanked colleagues and sponsors. Wood gave another similar speech of thanks at the 1942 Last Night, and a pre-recorded version was aired to the audience at the 1943 Last Night. During his tenure, Sargent established the tone of making the Last Night speeches more humorous in nature. Subsequent conductors at the Last Night have generally continued this tradition, although one exception was in 1997 when Sir Andrew Davis more seriously addressed the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, Mother Teresa, and Sir Georg Solti in his 1997 Last Night speech.^[44]

The Royal Albert Hall could be filled many times over with people wishing to attend the Last Night. To accommodate these people, and to cater for those who are not near London, the Proms in the Park concerts were started in 1996. Initially there was only one, in Hyde Park, adjacent to the Hall. More locations have been added in recent years, and in 2005, Belfast, Glasgow, Swansea and Manchester hosted a Last Night Prom in the Park which was broadcast live from each venue. 2007 saw Manchester's prom being replaced by one in Middlesbrough. 2008 featured a reduction from 5 to 4 Proms in the Park, in Hyde Park, Belfast, Glasgow and Swansea. 2009 returned to a total of 5 Proms in the Park, in Hyde Park, Glasgow, Swansea, County Down and Salford. Each location has its own live concert, typically playing the countries' respective national anthems, before joining in a live big screen video link up with the Royal Albert Hall for the traditional finale.

Leonard Slatkin, chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 2000–2004, expressed a desire to tone down the nationalism of the Last Night somewhat, and on the Last Night of the seasons from 2002 until 2007 Rule Britannia has only been heard as part of Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songs (another piece traditional to the Last Night) rather than separately. Slatkin, an American and the first non-Commonwealth citizen to lead the Last Night, conducted his first Last Night in 2001, just days after the 9/11 attacks. The atmosphere was more restrained and less festive than normal, with a heavily revised programme where the finale of Beethoven's 9th Symphony replaced the Sea Songs, and Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings was performed in tribute to the victims of the attacks.^[45]

On the day of the 2005 Last Night, the hall management received word of a bomb threat, which led to a thorough search of the Albert Hall for 5 hours, but the concert took place with a modest time delay. This has led to increased security concerns, given the stature of the Last Night in British culture, which Jacqui Kelly of the Royal Albert Hall staff noted:

"That was quite a nerve-racker—our biggest event, the one everybody knows the Albert Hall for, and we were in real danger of losing it. We're an iconic thing, up there in the public eye, so we have to expect that."^[46]

2008 also contained some departures from the traditional programme. Pomp and Circumstance March No 1 was moved to after the conductor's speech. In addition, most of Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songs was replaced by Vaughan Williams's Sea Songs as a final tribute in his anniversary year. However, Wood's arrangements of naval bugle calls from the start of the Fantasia were retained, and Sargent's arrangement of Rule Britannia returned with Bryn Terfel as soloist. As on his 1994 Last Night appearance,^[47] he sang one verse in a Welsh translation, with the chorus also translated into Welsh.

2009 saw the continued absence of Wood's Sea Songs, this time replaced by specially commissioned fanfares, and extracts from Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks.^[48][49] In 2009, for the first time, the Last Night was shown live in several cinemas across Asia and in Canada and Australia.^[50]

Last Night Conductors[link]

The following table lists by year the conductors of the Last Night of the Proms. Normally, the Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra leads this concert, but guest conductors have directed the Last Night on several occasions.

• ^1 Duties undertaken as Guest conductor, rather than as resident Chief Conductor, BBC Symphony Orchestra
• ^2 The seasons of 1940 and 1944 were curtailed by German bombing, so there was no official "Last Night", Wood died shortly before what should have been the end of the 1944 season
• ^3 Sir Henry from 1911 onwards
• ^4 Later Sir Colin
• ^5 Later Sir Mark
• ^6 Sir Andrew from 1994 onwards
• ^7 Constant Lambert, Basil Cameron and Sir Adrian Boult jointly undertook proceedings upon the return in 1945
• ^8 Robertson has been Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC SO since 2005

See also[link]

BBC portal

• BBC Electric Proms
• List of music festivals in the United Kingdom

Proms Controllers[link]

• William Glock (1960–1973)
• Robert Ponsonby (1973–1985)
• John Drummond (1986–1995)
• Nicholas Kenyon (1996–2007)
• Roger Wright (2007–present)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Proms in the United Kingdom

• BBC Proms at BBC Online
• BBC Proms Archive
• BBC Proms reviews at musicOMH
• Detailed Concert Annals for the 1959–1961 season
• Nick Breckenfield, "The Last Night of the Proms 2007". classicalsource.com page

Gustavo Dudamel
Dudamel at the European Tour, 2008
Background information
Birth name	Gustavo Adolfo Dudamel Ramírez
Born	(1981-01-26) January 26, 1981 (age 31) Barquisimeto, Lara, Venezuela
Genres	Classical
Occupations	Composer, conductor
Instruments	Violin
Years active	1999–present
Associated acts	Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra
Website	www.GustavoDudamel.com

Gustavo Adolfo Dudamel Ramírez (born January 26, 1981) is a Venezuelan conductor and violinist. He is the principal conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony in Gothenburg, Sweden, and music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Los Angeles, California.^[1] Dudamel is also the artistic director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar in Caracas, Venezuela.

Life and career[link]

Early life[link]

Dudamel was born in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, the son of a trombonist and a voice teacher.^[2] He studied music from an early age, becoming involved with El Sistema, the famous Venezuelan musical education program, and took up the violin at age ten. He soon began to study composition. He attended the Jacinto Lara Conservatory, where he was taught the violin by José Luis Jiménez. He then went on to work with José Francisco del Castillo at the Latin-American Violin Academy. He began to study conducting in 1995, first with Rodolfo Saglimbeni, then later with José Antonio Abreu. In 1999, he was appointed music director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar, the national youth orchestra of Venezuela, and toured several countries. He attended Charles Dutoit's master class in Buenos Aires in 2002, and worked as assistant for Simon Rattle in Berlin and Salzburg in 2003.

Conducting career[link]

Dudamel began to win a number of conducting competitions, including the Gustav Mahler Conducting Prize in Germany in 2004.^[3] His reputation began to spread, and he was noticed by conductors such as Simon Rattle and Claudio Abbado, who accepted invitations to conduct the Simón Bolívar Orchestra in Venezuela.^[4] Dudamel debuted with the Philharmonia, the Israel Philharmonic, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, among others, in 2005, and also signed a recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon.

In 2005, Gustavo Dudamel first conducted the Gothenburg Symphony at the BBC Proms, on short notice as a replacement for the indisposed Neeme Järvi.^[5][6]

In 2006, Dudamel was named Principal Conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony.^[7] He continues to retain his position with the Simón Bolívar National Youth Orchestra.^[8] He took up the Gothenburg post in 2007,^[2] and his current contract there is to 2012.^[9] Dudamel made his US conducting debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (LAP) at the Hollywood Bowl on September 13, 2005 in a program consisting of "La Noche de los Mayas" by Silvestre Revueltas and the Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5.^[10]

He made his debut at La Scala, Milan, with Don Giovanni in November 2006. On September 10, 2007, he conducted the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra for the first time at the Lucerne Festival.

On April 16, 2007, Gustavo Dudamel conducted the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra in a concert in commemoration of the 80th birthday of Pope Benedict XVI, with Hilary Hahn as solo violinist, with the Pope himself and many other church dignitaries among the audience.^[11]

In March 2008, he made his debut with the San Francisco Symphony. Dudamel was subsequently invited back to the US, to conduct the orchestra at Walt Disney Concert Hall in January 2007 in performances of "Dances of Galánta" by Zoltán Kodály, the third piano concerto of Sergei Rachmaninoff with Yefim Bronfman as soloist, and Béla Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra (the latter of which was recorded live and subsequently released by Deutsche Grammophon).

Music Director, Los Angeles Philharmonic[link]

In April 2007, during a guest conducting engagement with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Dudamel was named the LAP's next music director as of the 2009–2010 season, succeeding Esa-Pekka Salonen. His initial contract in Los Angeles is for five years, beginning in September 2009.^[12][13][14] Dudamel began his tenure as Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic on September 28, 2009 with a rehearsal of Beethoven's 9th Symphony that included the Los Angeles Master Chorale and representatives of eight community-based choruses. His first official rehearsal with the orchestra followed on September 30. On October 3 he conducted Beethoven's 9th Symphony at the Hollywood Bowl in "Bienvenido Gustavo," a free concert, and conducted his official inaugural concert featuring the world premiere of John Adams' "City Noir" and Mahler's Symphony No. 1 with his new orchestra in Walt Disney Concert Hall on October 8.

Awards and media[link]

Dudamel is featured in the documentary film Tocar y Luchar, which covers El Sistema. Dudamel and the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar received the WQXR Gramophone Special Recognition Award in New York City in November 2007. Another US television news feature on Dudamel was on 60 Minutes in February 2008, entitled "Gustavo the Great".

On July 23, 2009, Dudamel was selected by the Eighth Glenn Gould Prize laureate José Antonio Abreu as winner of the prestigious The City of Toronto Glenn Gould Protégé Prize.

Dudamel is featured in the 2011 documentary "Let The Children Play," a film which focuses on his work advocating for music as a way to enrich children's lives.^[15]

Gramophone, the British classical music magazine, named Dudamel its 2011 Gramophone Artist of the Year. Past recipients of the award include Yo-Yo Ma, Michael Tilson Thomas, Riccardo Chailly, Cecilia Bartoli and Antonio Pappano, to name only a few. The announcement was made at the Gramophone Awards in London on October 6, 2011.

In 2011, Dudamel appeared in the Visit California promotional film aimed at boosting tourism from the UK.

On February 12, 2012, Gustavo Dudamel won a Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance, for his recording of Brahms Symphony No. 4 for the label Deutsche Grammophon.

Personal life[link]

Gustavo and his wife, Eloísa Maturén

Dudamel married his girlfriend, Eloísa Maturén, in 2006 in Caracas. Maturén, also a Venezuelan native, is a classically trained ballet dancer and a journalist.

The Simón Bolívar National Youth Orchestra combined forces with the Schola Cantorum de Venezuela and the Orfeon Universitario of the Universidad Centroccidental Lisandro Alvarado to make the event a special musical celebration. The wedding took place in the chapel at the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Montalbán, a suburb of Caracas.

They have a son, Martín Dudamel Maturén, a U.S. citizen.^[16]

Discography[link]

• 2006: "Beethoven, Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7"
• 2007: "Birthday Concert for Pope Benedict XVI"
• 2007: "Mahler, Symphony No. 5"
• 2008: "Fiesta"
• 2008: "The Promise Of Music"
• 2008: "Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5, Francesca Da Rimini"
• 2009: "Gustavo Dudamel - Live From Salzburg"
• 2009: "Discoveries"
• 2009: "El Sistema - Music To Change Life"
• 2009: "The Inaugural Concert"
• 2009: "State Of The Art - The Story Of Deutsche Grammophon"
• 2010: "Stravinsky: Le Sacre Du Printemps; Revueltas: La Noche De Los Mayas"
• 2011: "Tchaikovsky & Shakespeare"
• 2011: "New Year's Eve Concert 2010"
• 2011: "Sibelius: Symphony No. 2; Nielsen: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5; Bruckner: Symphony No. 9"
• 2012: "Beethoven: Symphony No. 3"

References[link]

Notes

Further reading

• Tunstall, Tricia, Changing Lives: Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema, and the Transformative Power of Music, New York: W.W. Norton & Co. 2012 ISBN 978039307896

External links[link]

• Gustavo Dudamel official website
• Gustavo Dudamel biography at Deutsche Grammophon
• Conductor Gustavo Dudamel at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, with performance schedule
• Gustavo Dudamel collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Profile (2008) and interview (2010) at The Guardian
• Works by or about Gustavo Dudamel in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Gustavo Dudamel at the Internet Movie Database
• Gustavo Dudamel and Eloísa Maturen's civil wedding (Spanish), el universal.com, 25 November 2005 – includes wedding photographs
• Fundación de Estado para el Sistema Nacional de Orquesta Juveniles e Infantiles de Venezuela (El Sistema)

Video

• 60 Minutes (CBS-TV): "Gustavo the Great" February 17, 2008 (video and transcript)
• Celebracion! Dudamel, Florez, and the L.A. Philharmonic, 1:55:22, Great Performances on PBS, December 29, 2010, video-only link with related videos
• Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic: The Inaugural Concert, 51:41, Great Performances on PBS, October 21, 2009, video-only link with related videos
• JANERA: Dudamel in da House, by Nicole E. Foster (article and video)
• WQXR Press Release, 12 November 2007, "The 2007 WQXR Gramophone Special Recognition Award Is Presented to Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela on the Stage of Carnegie Hall on November 10".
• Danzón no. 2 on YouTube by Arturo Márquez. Gustavo Dudamel and Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra
• Gustavo Dudamel and the Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra performing for TED 2009
• Suite Concertante for World-WWs & Orch, Movs. 6 & 7 on YouTube by Pedro Eustache (composer-soloist). Gustavo Dudamel and Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra
• Mahler 5, Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela

Alison Balsom
Alison Balsom at a recital in Hamburg in 2006
Background information
Birth name	Alison Louise Balsom
Born	(1978-10-07) 7 October 1978 (age 33) Royston, Hertfordshire, UK
Genres	Classical, jazz
Occupations	Musician, Educator
Instruments	Trumpet
Years active	2001 - present
Labels	EMI Classics, Hyperion Records
Associated acts	Royston Town Band, London Chamber Orchestra
Website	Alison Balsom Official website

Alison Louise Balsom (born 7 October 1978) is an English trumpet soloist.

Early life[link]

Balsom was born in Hertfordshire. She attended the Tannery Drift Primary School, then the Greneway Middle School and the Meridian School, all in Royston, Hertfordshire, where she played in a brass band, the Royston Town Band. She took her A levels at the Hills Road Sixth Form College in Cambridge.

She studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, the Conservatoire de Paris, and also with Håkan Hardenberger.

Career[link]

Balsom has been a professional classical trumpeter since 2001. She is a former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist,^[1] and she released her debut album with EMI Classics in 2002. In 2005, she released her second disc, Bach Works for Trumpet as part of a contract with EMI Classics. In 2006, Balsom won 'Young British Classical Performer' at the 2006 Classical BRIT Awards and was awarded the 'Classic FM Listeners' Choice Award' at the Classic FM Gramophone Awards. She won 'Female Artist of the Year' at the 2009 and 2011 Classical BRIT Awards. Her third album (the second disc in the EMI contract), Caprice was released in September 2006 and was awarded 'Solo CD of the Year 2006' by Brass Band World magazine. Alison was a soloist at the 2009 Last Night of the Proms, performing, among other pieces, Haydn's Trumpet Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and a jazz orientated arrangement of George Gershwin's "They Can't Take That Away from Me" with mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly.

Balsom was the principal trumpet of the London Chamber Orchestra.^[2] Her main trumpet is a Malone-converted Bach C Trumpet.

She is a Visiting Professor of Trumpet at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.^[3]

Personal life[link]

Aside from music, Balsom has a keen interest in yachting.^[4] From 2009 to early 2011 she dated British conductor Edward Gardner; in spring 2010 they had a baby boy named Charlie.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9]}

Discography[link]

• Alison Balsom: Music for Trumpet and Organ (EMI Classics Debut, 2002)
• Alison Balsom & Crispian Steele-Perkins: The Fam'd Italian Masters (Hyperion, 2003)
• Alison Balsom: Bach works for Trumpet (EMI Classics, 2005)
• Alison Balsom: Caprice (EMI Classics, 2006)
• Alison Balsom: Haydn and Hummel Trumpet Concertos (EMI Classics, 2008)
• Alison Balsom: Italian Concertos (EMI Classics, 2010)
• BBC Music Magazine, December 2010: Haydn & Hummel concertos (not the 2008 EMI recordings); Albinoni's Oboe Concerto Op. 9 No. 2, transcribed for trumpet; and Vivaldi's Violin Concerto Op. 3 No. 9, arranged for trumpet and instrumental trio.

Awards[link]

• Best Female Artist, Classical BRIT Awards, 2009^[10], 2011^[11]
• Classic FM Listeners' Choice Award, Classic FM Gramophone Award 2006
• Young British Performer, Classical BRIT Awards, 2006
• Feeling Musique Prize for quality of sound in the 4th Maurice André International Trumpet Competition.
• Concerto finalist in the BBC Young Musicians Competition, 1998

References[link]

External links[link]

• Alison Balsom Official website
• Alison Balsom recordings on EMI Classics
• Caprice album microsite
• Haydn & Hummel album microsite
• Alison Balsom on MySpace
• Alison Balsom Masterclass
• The trumpeter shaking up the classical music world (BBC interview)

Video clips[link]

• Libertango at the 2009 Proms

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]