June is David Tennant month on screens big and small

THE SEATTLE TIMES
By Tish Wells
McClatchy News Service



June should be officially designated “David Tennant Month” for the number of shows he’s appearing in.

Who is David Tennant? Clearly, you haven’t watched the BBC’s “Doctor Who” or “Broadchurch,” in which he starred as a scruffy detective hunting the murderer of a boy in a small town. The most knowledgeable, and adult, viewers might remember him from the racy “Casanova.”

Now he stands to be on the silver screen and public television all in the same month.

First, Fathom Events and BBC Worldwide are having a two-night Tennant extravaganza for family movie viewing.

On Monday, June 16, the 2006 “Doctor Who” episodes “Rise of the Cybermen” / “The Age of Steel” will be shown in movie theaters. The two episodes have been re-edited into one theatrical release. These showings include an extra 20 minutes of bonus content from Tennant himself.

On the second night, Tuesday, June 17, the theaters will show “Wings 3D,” a director’s cut of the documentary series “Earthflight,” narrated by Tennant in his native Scottish accent. The John Downer documentary uses 3-D photography done via microlites, paragliders and octocopters aircraft, videotaping from the heart of the flocks as they migrate.

The film includes snow geese gliding past the Statue of Liberty in New York, the lyrical mating dances of Hokkaido’s snowy cranes and flocks of scarlet macaws darting about in the rain forest. In Seattle, the movies will be shown at Pacific Place and Meridian 16. For a list of other area movie theaters hosting these films, go to fathomevents.com.

Tennant also stars in PBS’ new two-part series “The Escape Artist” on “Masterpiece Mystery!” In it he’s a defense lawyer who runs afoul of a dangerous client.

READ MORE HERE: http://seattletimes.com/html/entertainment/2023841702_davidtennantjunexml.html

David Tennant on Shakespeare: 'I love doing the plays'

CHANNEL 4 NEWS
 Katie Razzall
MONDAY 11 NOVEMBER 2013  UK

In a very unscientific straw poll in the days leading up to my interview with David Tennant, it was clear most people had a favourite Tennant-realised character.

Doctor Who, naturally, was a big contender. Casanova was another (that part came back in the heady days of 2005 when the actor wasn't on TV seemingly all the time). His DI in Broadchurch was a favourite (he got to use a Scottish accent close to his own in that one). Nobody though cited Tennant's Hamlet. Or his Richard II.

Clearly, that's unlikely to be anything to do with the way David Tennant gets his tongue around Shakespeare's words; it's just the natural way of things. Four hundred years ago, perhaps, Tennant would have been a big star precisely because of his mastery of the bard.

These days, we don't consume Shakespeare like we used to.

Broadcast live to cinemas
I was granted an interview though (he doesn't do many these days, though he seems to prefer TV and radio interviews to the mainstream print media) because he will be bringing his Richard II to a wider audience on Wednesday. Well, that's the RSC's intention.

The live performance from Stratford-upon-Avon that night will also be broadcast live in cinemas across the country.

So what does David Tennant think about the argument that's been rumbling, most recently after Julian Fellowes adapted Romeo and Juliet for the big screen by modernising the language? Fellowes has been quoted as saying you need a "very expensive education" to understand Shakespeare.

The man playing Richard II disagrees. Of the plays he said: "I don't have an expensive education, I went to a comprehensive in Paisley, and I don't think they're remote or difficult". (He told me, for any of you worrying that they are remote, that in rehearsal there's plenty actors don't understand, it's a process of working out what the language means.

But if the plays are realised well on stage, it's easier he says, to understand what's happening).

But neither does he see it as his job to bring Shakespeare to the masses. It is selfishness, he told me, that has him returning to the RSC. "I love doing the plays."



Lucky talisman worn on stage
There's been much comment about his long-haired Richard II. When we met, the hair extensions were neatly tucked away in the kind of French plait my daughter would love me to be able to manage.

Another story that's emerged from this performance concerns the ring he wears on stage every night. It belonged to Ian Richardson who wore it when he played Richard II, the last big Scottish actor to do so. So Ian Richardson's widow sent it to David Tennant - and he's worn it on stage ever since, a "talisman" and a link to a great Shakespearean actor of the past.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.channel4.com/news/david-tennant-richard-ii-rsc-shakespeare-dr-who