Catherine Tate springs surprise Doctor Who reunion on David Tennant with prank

Following an earlier appearance from another former co-star, Alex Kingston, Tate popped up to ask Tennant a question herself.

“Who’s your favourite companion?” she asked, drawing enthusiastic cheers from the crowd.

When an amused Tennant responded “definitely Rose”, Tate joked: “That’s good because my favourite Doctor is Chris Eccleston!”

Tate was first introduced to Doctor Who as Donna in 2007 Christmas special The Runaway Bride before returning for the entirety of series four in 2008.

Earlier this year, Tate said that she hadn’t yet seen new episodes of the show starring Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor because she’s not a big sci-fi “aficionado” and “wouldn’t understand them” – although she did concede that she was sure Whittaker would be “brilliant” in the role.

She told Absolute Radio: “I kind of just jumped into Doctor Who saying, oh this’ll be an adventure. It was a real game-changer actually in my life, Doctor Who. I absolutely loved it. But it doesn’t make me a sci-fi aficionado – I still don’t know what goes on, and I wasn’t quite aware what was going on to me.”