David Tennant Review Of 2013: November - December



Our review of David Tennant's projects of 2013 draws to a close with November and December. November was a big month for David with his much anticipated return to Doctor Who for the 50th Anniversary, while Richard II started its London run at the Barbican Theatre. Meanwhile, more information was released about David's next project, Gracepoint.


November

TV
The Doctor Who 50th Anniversary took place on Saturday 23rd November. Celebrations culminated with the worldwide simultaneous broadcast - the largest ever - of the special episode The Day Of The Doctor starring David, Matt Smith and John Hurt as three incarnations of the Time Lord. 
The BBC released an official synopsis of the episode and the international airtime was confirmed as 19.50 GMT.  The official trailer was shown in the UK and USA on 9th November



Other trailers,  clips and official photographs were subsequently released by the BBC and can be viewed on our Day Of The Doctor site.  A further announcement was the Doctor Who minisode The Night Of The Doctor which aired via BBC Red Button and online: this turned out to feature Paul McGann and Explained the origin of John Hurt's version of the Doctor, or the War Doctor as he was known. 
The Tenth Doctor episode of The Doctors Revisited aired on Watch in the UK. The BBC included an exclusive clip from The Day Of The Doctor in the annual Children In Need TV appeal show. In the week of the anniversary both the Radio and TV Times in the UK were published with collectible covers. In separate polls conducted by Radio Times, David Tennant and Billie Piper were named as the favourite ever Doctor and favourite ever Doctor Who companion. David was also voted best ever Doctor by readers of the Daily Mirror and IGN.
Doctor who featured heavily in the UK TV magazines:
TV Times
Radio Times
Other UK TV magazines
David featured in a tongue-in-cheek video to introduce the special



On Friday 22nd November, David and Matt appeared on the Graham Norton Show on BBC One to talk about the anniversary and The Day Of The Doctor. Their fellow guests were Emma Thompson, Jimmy Carr, Robbie Williams and Olly Murs. 


David and Matt answered questions from Whovian Fans:


David featured in a project created by Peter Davison, The Five(ish) Doctors, which followed the attempts of the classic Doctors to appear in the anniversary special. The spoof starred Peter with Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy and included appearances by Paul McGann, John Barrowman and Russell T. Davies. Watch it here
David and Matt also spoke about how in awe they were of their co-star John Hurt

The Escape Artist continued on BBC One and the series was released on DVD on 18th November. We learnt that some of the Scottish scenes were filmed in sub-zero temperatures. Australian Channel SBS announced that they would air the drama in 2014. 



Broadchurch was released on Blu-ray in the UK. During a press call for her new BC drama The 7:39, Olivia Colman confirmed again that she would return for the second series. Andrew Buchanan (Mark Latimer) also hinted at a return. Broadchurch was nominated in the South Bank Sky Arts Awards and the Broadcast Awards. Netherlands channel RTL 4 announced that they would begin screening the drama in January. Chris Chibnall, Olivia Colman, director James Strong and executive producer Jane Featherstone made up the panel at the Royal Television Society event Broadchurch: Anatomy Of A Hit
The US DVD release of Broadchurch wasannounced as 1st April 2014 - click here to pre-order
Audition tapes for Gracepoint were posted to Vimeo which revealed details about the series, including name changes for Alec Hardy, Jack, Karen, Olly and the Latimers and gave some details about the town and it's location. It was learnt that the Hardy character, played by David, would now be called Emmett Carver. New cast was announced: Anna Gunn and Jacki Weaver came on board to play Ellie Miller and Susan Wright respectively. Anna Gunn revealed that shooting would take place in Northern California and around Vancouver. 
David recorded the voiceover for the new John Downer Productions series Dolphins: Spy In The Pod.



Theatre
The Royal Shakespeare Company's first ever live stream of one of their productions into cinemas took place this month as the 13th November performance of Richard II was filmed for broadcast. An edition of the RSC video production diaries featured David talking about his own thoughts on the live stream. 




The cinema screenings sold out nationally and brought in over £1 million. On 15th November the recording was also screened into 1000 UK schools and David and director Gregory Doran took part in a live Q&A afterwards. 
David was interviewed on Radio 4 along with Maroussia Richardson who had sent him a ring that her late husband Ian Richardson had worn on stage while performing Richard II for the RSC. 
David was interviewed by Channel 4 News about Richard II
A recording of Gregory Doran's Director's Talk was posted online
The RSC revealed that the DVD release of the recording of Richard II was scheduled for February 2014 and they released a clip of the deposition scene


The production closed on 16th November ahead of the transfer to the Barbican in London. 

Radio 
David joined Jo Whiley on her show on BBC Radio 2. He chose some music, ate cake and chatted about Broadchurch, Richard II and Gracepoint. Listen to their conversation here:




Film
Nativity 2: Danger In The Manger! was released on DVD and Blu-Ray in the UK, USA and Australia. The film was also made available on Sky Box Office and Netflix. Ben Wilby, who plays Bob in both Nativity movies spoke to us about working with David, Marc Wootton and Martin Freeman

Ads
Virgin Media launched the latest wave of the ad campaign featuring David. He appeared in a TV ad to promote the range of films available via the Netflix service and in an online ad with a roomful of cats



Misc
David took part in a live webchat for The Guardian, answering questions posted by fans. Read what he had to say here
On the same day David filmed an interview for Channel 4 news to talk about the Richard II live stream



David released his annual Patron message for Headway Essex - read it here 

December

TV
The final UK TV rating for The Day Of The Doctor was revealed as 12.8 million viewers. Many more people viewed the special via cinema screenings. The drama also smashed the record for BBC iPlayer requests. It was the UK's most watched drama of the year.
The Day Of the Doctor was released on DVD and Blu-ray around the world. 
David Tennant and Matt Smith appeared in a video clip talking about their Doctors' differences. 



David appeared in a clip with Billie Piper about their returns to Doctor Who
Digital Spy readers voted Doctor Who the drama of the year. 
David appeared in a new special from BBC America, Farewell To Matt Smith, broadcast on Christmas Day, the day of Matt's departure from Doctor Who. 
David and Matt appeared in a video clip discussing life after regeneration. 




More cast members were announced for Gracepoint:
Kevin Rankin - Paul Coates
Virginia Kull - Beth Lassiter
Kevin Zegers - Owen Burke
Michael Peña - Mark Lassiter
Josh Hamilton -Joe Miller
Nick Nolte - Jack Reinhold
David revealed that he would be having voice coaching sessions to perfect his accent via Skype. 
Th first shooting location was revealed to be the Victoria area of Vancouver Island, BC. Shooting was expected to start on January 20th with David Tennant joining during the week commencing 27th January. It was also suggested that shooting would wrap in late April 2014. Anna Gunn hinted that she had been asked to give her own interpretation of Ellie rather than simply mimic Olivia Colman's take on the character. 
Meanwhile it emerged that Broadchurch 2 would shoot in the West Country, on the south coast and in the south-east around the London area. The original series aired in Switzerland while M-Net in South Africa and TV One in New Zealand looked forward to airing it early in 2014. Broadchurch was voted the number one TV show of the year by Radio Times critics and was named ITV's top highlight of the year. Olivia Colman was nominated as Best Actress for Broadchurch in the IPA Awards. 
TV4 in Sweden aired The Escape Artist
The air date on BBC One for Dolphins: Spy In The Pod narrated by David was confirmed as 2nd January 2014. A trailer and synopsis was released followed by a preview clip
Huffington Post selected a list of the eleven most dramatic TV Moments Of 2013. David featured in three of them

Theatre
Richard II opened at the Barbican Theatre in London with previews from 9th December and Press Night on 12th December. 



Richard II began streaming in US cinemas and dates were added for cinemas in Japan and South America. The play was nominated in the Regional Production category in the WhatsOnStage Awards
David and the Richard II cast featured in a fundraising video created for the Room 9 Advent Calendar Fundraiser in support of WaterAid. 


Radio
David returned to Absolute Radio for their 2013 Christmas Panto, Zombie Claus. 


He co-starred with Eastenders star Shane Richie and Christian O'Connell and the Absolute Breakfast Show crew. The play culminated with David being hit in the face with a fajita
The new series of the award winning Believe It! Starring Richard Wilson began on BBC Radio 4 featuring David in 3 of the 4 episodes
Download Episode 1 - Victor here
Download Episode 2 - Secrets here
Download Episode 3 - Danger Man here

Film
Ronan Keating was added to the cast of Postman Pat: The Movie as the singing voice of Pat
BBC Films launched a film page for What We Did On Our Holiday
The Disney Channel in France aired Nativity 2: Danger In The Manger! The movie was also added to Netflix in the USA.

Audiobooks
The How To Train Your Dragon audiobooks read by David were released in the USA. Publishers Hatchette posted extracts from the books to their Soundcloud channel. 

Misc
David Tennant was named among Broadcast's Top TV Talent of 2013 and as one of the Radio Times Faces of 2013
David's radio ad for Heinz Soup was awarded a Radio Advertising Bureau Aerial Award



Animator Alisa Stern produced a special Christmas Doctor Puppet feature. 







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