David Tennant has admitted that his hotly-anticipated return to Doctor Who later this year was far from easy to navigate, and involved a lot of back and forth with bosses.
Last year, the fandom was sent into a tailspin when it was announced the actor would be reprising his role of the Time Lord alongside Catherine Tate, who will be returning as Donna Noble for three special episodes.
Opening up about rejoining the BBC sci-fi drama, David spilled to the Radio Times magazine: “The specifics of coming back to Doctor Who took a bit of wrangling. But we were always receptive to the notion.
“Initially, it was a casual conversation going ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to do a one-off?’ then [showrunner Russell T Davies] was back running the show and suddenly it could be something bigger...
“But there’s really no pressure. It’s a victory lap, in a way – you get to enjoy something that had meant so much to you, one last shot before you get too old to do it again.”
David originally served as the lead star in Doctor Who between 2005 and 2010. He also made a brief return in the special 2013 episode The Day Of The Doctor, in which he shared the screen with his successor, Matt Smith.
Russel T Davies helmed Doctor Who when it relaunched in 2005 before stepping down four years later.
He is now back in charge, with David playing the new 14th Doctor before Sex Education star Ncuti Gatwa makes his debut as the next in line.
Turning his attention to his own return, Russell previously said: “It is lovely, I only came back because I had things to do, things I wanted to do and stories I wanted to write.”
Speaking to Table Manners podcast hosts Jessie and Lennie Ware, he continued: “It doesn’t feel like I am going back as cliché as it sounds, it feels like I am going forward.
“The fact that I have loved that show my entire life and it is my first memory in life, not my first memory of television but my first memory in life... and remember all those years later it becomes the number one show in Britain it’s like, how lucky am I? Very, very lucky.”
Doctor Who is set to return to BBC One in the autumn.