tennant

David Tennant is the stage name of David John McDonald (born 18 April 1971), a Scottish actor from Bathgate, West Lothian. He is best known for portraying the tenth incarnation of the Doctor in the television series Doctor Who.

Already a well-known theatre actor, Tennant achieved wider fame for his TV roles in Casanova and Doctor Who, as well as his film role as Barty Crouch Jr in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

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

Born David John McDonald

18 April 1971 (1971-04-18) (age 36)

Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland

Occupation Actor

Years active 1988–present

Doctor Who (2005–Present)

Tennant as the Tenth Doctor in Doctor Who.

Tennant's name was put forward as a possible candidate for the role of the Ninth Doctor for the new series that began in March 2005, although the role eventually went to Christopher Eccleston. With Eccleston's announcement on 31 March that he would not be returning for a second series, the BBC confirmed Tennant as his replacement in a press release on 16 April. He made his first, brief appearance in the episode "The Parting of the Ways" (2005) after 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 sixty-minute special, "The Christmas Invasion", first broadcast on Christmas Day 2005. He was also seen in early December in the ITV drama Secret Smile.

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.[4] In 2007, Tennant's Doctor Who was voted the "coolest character" on UK television in a Radio Times survey[5].

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. 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. 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.

Tennant will continue to play the Tenth Doctor into the revived programme's fourth series in 2008, and in the three specials that will make up the 2009 series.[6] The Daily Mirror has also reported that Tennant is forbidden from attending Doctor Who fan conventions while he is playing the role.[7] He said at the Children in Need concert that his favourite Doctor Who story is Genesis of the Daleks. He has also stated that his favourite monsters are the Zygons.

He made his directorial debut directing 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 alongside Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor, at age 56, in a Doctor Who special for Children in Need, written by Steven Moffat entitled "Time Crash". This was the first "multi-Doctor" story in the series since The Two Doctors in 1985.[8]

In an interview with on Jonathan Ross' BBC Radio 2 show, Catherine Tate said that Tennant may be leaving after the next series.[9] However this has since been denied by Tennant in an interview he gave to Ripley Today.[10] He had also mentioned to the TV-Guide What's On TV, that he is going to keep the public guessing for when he resigns from Doctor W