John Barrowman: "David Tennant Was The Best Ever Doctor"



Doctor Who star John Barrowman has been chatting to The Big Issue as part of their regular Letter To My Younger Self feature.

John, who has acted alongside both Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant in the show, and who became the star of its hugely successful spin off series Torchwood, revealed that he believes that David is the best Doctor.

Talking about his time playing Captain Jack Harkness on the show he says:
"It would blow my 16-year-old’s brain (even more) if I told him: you’re going to be one of the most iconic characters in Doctor Who for the next two or three generations. I think I was part of the greatest season of Doctor Who ever. And Billie Piper and I were 20 or 15 votes apart, voted number one and number two, in the poll for the best companion in the history of Doctor Who. I think David Tennant was the best ever Doctor, no one can hold a candle to him. I used to watch Doctor Who with John Pertwee, then Tom Baker, every Sunday night on the local Chicago TV station. I failed every Monday morning spelling test because of that show."

He also tells of how he bagged the role of Jack:
"If I could go back and relive one moment in my life, I’d go to the moment I got the job as Captain Jack [above] in Doctor Who. I’d gone to audition for this role of a rogue, matinee idol type, in front of the execs Russell T Davies and Phil Collinson. I walked into the meeting with my motorbike leathers on, and I took my helmet off and shook out my hair. Later on Russell told me: “When you walked into that room and took your helmet off, we both fucking wet ourselves. You were so handsome, and your physique with those leathers on… We thought we were watching some kind of porn movie. Neither of us could remember much about what you said after that.” Later on I was walking through the West End and I got a phone call; they said, hands down, without a doubt, everyone agrees John Barrowman is definitively Captain Jack. I started screaming in the middle of Covent Garden and then I ran and did a Jimmy Cagney backflip off a wall. That was the day my life changed forever."

You can read the full interview with John over on the Big Issue site here.

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