Whovians around the world were delighted when it emerged that David Tennant would be returning to Doctor Who for next year's 60th-anniversary special – and the star has now revealed that his return came about as something of "an accident".
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In a recent interview with BBC News, the Tenth Doctor actor explained that "this all started" when he and various other stars from the show's past took part in a series of watch-alongs at the height of lockdown.
"At a certain time and day everyone would press play on a certain episode and some of the people who had been involved in those episodes were Tweeting along," he said, adding: "I don't Tweet but my wife helped me!"
It was during these events that he first spoke about the possibility of a return with showrunner Russell T Davies and former co-star Catherine Tate.
"[We] were just having a text exchange and Catherine said, 'Wouldn't it be fun to do it again?'" he revealed.
"Russell said, 'We could do a one off, maybe they'd let us.' We said, 'Yeah that would be a laugh,' and then it all went quiet."
David Tennant and Catherine Tate in Doctor Who in 2008. BBC
It was some time later when Davies got in touch again with the news that he was set to return as showrunner.
"Suddenly Russell let us know that he was taking over the show again and he would be back fully in charge and would we come and play a little bit for him?" Tennant said.
"So I don't know if we gave him the idea to take Doctor Who back but certainly we thought if he's doing it, we can't let these young people have all the fun."
Doctor Who is available to stream on BBC iPlayer with episodes of the classic series also available on BritBox – you can sign up for a 7-day free trial here. Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what's on tonight.
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Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
