David Tennant filming United in the snow yesterday

Yesterday David Tennant and the cast of United attempted to film a football pitch scene however there was about two foot of snow in the north east of England where they were filming!

Actor Dean Andrews tweeted at about 6.45am about his first day on set "Just arrived on the "united" set. Not sure how the football stuff will work today as we have 2ft of snow. The brains will sort it I'm sure."

He then posted the photo above of their football pitch.

At lunchtime he tweeted "Myself, Dougray and David have very gratefully eaten chille and rice while sitting in a tent....... The glamour! :) " (It was believed to be Dougray Scott's first day on set too.) After the days shoot he followed it with "Just sat in a lovely hot bath after a long very cold day on a football pitch :) "

They did manage some filming yesterday which a handful of fans managed to watch. One fan reported that David Tennant was filming in just a thin tracksuit with a T-shirt underneath (plus he had a whistle around his neck to fit his role as the coach). She tweeted that his teeth were chattering so much that he could barely speak!

On a down note unfortunately some of her photos of the set and David (and even some of her friend's young child with David) were posted onto a couple of fan forums without her permission and against her wishes. Despite her asking for them to be removed they are still there which left her to post that her lovely day had been ruined because she was so angry about it.

In relation to filming, last night there was a preview screening of David Tennant's forthcoming movie Decoy Bride. (You can read about that movie here.) Poppy Jamie, who describes herself as an aspiring TV presenter, said that "David Tennant performed his character very well."

Two David Tennant DVDs are released today

Two David Tennant DVDs released are released today in the UK!

The first is the series Single Father. It has the four episodes plus a special Making Of Single Father extra on the DVD.

It is available from this link (other online stores are available!) and costs £12.93.

The other DVD released today is The Catherine Tate Show: Nan's Christmas Carol which is available from this link for £6.99. As well as the programme (which was originally broadcast last Christmas) it has a behind the scenes section too.

David Tennant plays the Ghost Of Christmas Present in this episode.

First photo of David Tennant filming United

The first photo of David Tennant filming United was in the Sunday Sun (a North East England newspaper) today.

The photo (reproduced above) was taken by Gary Ian Ward outside Tynemouth station as that was being used to portray a 50s style building. David is with actress Melanie Hill in the photo.

Click here to read the whole article buy be warned that David plays Jimmy Murphy who has a Welsh accent and not a Scottish one as the article states!

First 3 days of filming on David Tennant's drama United

As posted on DavidTennantOnTwitter.com last week, filming on David Tennant's new drama United (about the Manchester United Munich air crash) started on Monday (22nd).

Filming is not usually done in sequence and consequently not all actors are required on set each day. However, from various tweets posted, it is known that David Tennant has filmed each day so far this week. The film is known to be mainly filmed in the North East (although the read-through took place in Manchester) and they have been filming in the Newcastle area.

Yesterday there were several tweets about United filming outside a school and on the forum attached to Digital Spy it was posted that it was "Kings School in Tynemouth (at the coast from Newcastle)." Jack O’Connell (from Skins) was also on set.

Earlier this week The Guardian announced that Dougray Scott (whose birthday it is today) would be playing Matt Busby in the drama which will be broadcast on BBC2 next year.

David Tennant wins October Most Attractive Man poll

David Tennant has won the October monthly vote for Most Attractive Man (voting was in November). It was announced via a tweet by Hello Magazine. David won by other 8,000 votes.

He started with a strong lead and despite being in second place for about a day at the start of the month, there was really never any doubt that he would win!

This means that he will be in the 2010 Annual vote which happens during January 2011.

David Tennant Reads Book At Bedtime this week

At 10.45pm each night this week (Monday to Friday) David Tennant will be reading Book At Bedtime on BBC Radio 4.

This is a very long running programme where a celebrity (usually an actor) reads either a continous story over the five nights or five short stories over the week. Each programme lasts 15 minutes and is available worldwide via this link. If you miss an episode it will be available (worldwide) for a week on the iPlayer.

On Monday 22nd November David Tennant will read Dead Persons In Hungary which is Antoine Calmet's eye witness accounts of real vampires. The BBC website describes it as "Antoine Augustin Calmet published an apparently serious anthropological history of the Vampire throughout Europe in the early 19 century called "The Phantom World." All the people he spoke to were adamant about what they had witnessed. His account therefore appears all the more disturbing and became the basis for the flights of Vampiric fancy that took off in the Victorian age."

On Tuesday 23rd November David Tennant will read The Family Of The Vourdalak which is Alexis Tolstoy's terrible story of a father who sets off on a mysterious mission.

The description is "Leo Tolstoy's lesser known brother has written this compelling story about a patriarch who sets off on a mysterious mission but fears he may come back a Vampire. If he should return to their village after 10 days - he begs his family to deny him access and plunge a stake through his heart."

On Wednesday 24th November David Tennant will read The Horla and the desciption on the BBC website is "After an unusual Brazilian ship enters the harbour - our hero suddenly begins to feel unwell, and starts to have feverish and disturbing visions. Only too late does he discover the demonic nature of the South American ship's cargo."

On Thursday 25th November David Tennant will read Luella Miller which was written by Mary E Wilkins Freeman and is described as "Luella Miller seems incapable of surviving on her own - so she calls on friends, relatives and lovers to help her. And they all die - one by one - until there is no one left to lift a finger to assist this most demanding of women. An unusual tale - set in small town America."

Finally on Friday 26th November David Tennant will read Clarimonde by Theophile Gautier. The description on the BBC website is "As a young man approaches his first moments as a priest his eyes glance to heaven - and sees leaning over the sanctuary railing - a young woman of extraordinary beauty. And so begins a sensational struggle for his soul......"

All of these programmes are Pacificus production for BBC Radio 4 and the producer is Clive Brill.

David Tennant at PiggyBankKids fund-raiser last night

Last night David Tennant attended a fund-raiser in aid of the charity PiggyBankKids with Rob Bryden as quizmaster. On their website they describe their mission as:
"PiggyBankKids is about changing children’s lives. Every single child is precious and unique. At PiggyBankKids we work hard to give children the best possible chance of living a healthy and happy life, here in the UK. We want to help as many children as we can: from the vulnerable babies whose lives could be saved with the right scientific breakthroughs, to those kids and young people who have the hardest start in life. The charity was founded by Sarah Brown in 2002 to help inspiring professionals continue their world-changing work in saving and transforming children’s lives."

There were various tweets about David Tennant being there both during and after the event.

The first indication was from Mumsnet who joked whether he was part of the auction - "At PiggyBankKids and David Tennant is here- do you think he is part of the auction?!?!"

Joanne Harris tweeted:

"I am sitting opposite David Tennant. :-)" "I am dutifully (a) licking (b) squeeing (c) congratulating DT on behalf of @Toujours_Javert and all my tweeps. He is lovely, by the way :-)"

"apart from meeting David Tennant, I got to hear the terrific @tswofficial sing STARS from LES MIS. Cracking voice. One to watch :-)"

"Piggybank twitpic later, folks. As for DT: summer jacket, Converses, big smile. Bid for the Quentin Blake piggybank. Told him he ROCKED."

The @tswofficial that Joanne referred to is singer ThomasSpencerWortley who also tweeted:

"very late back from being at the fantastic @SarahBrownUK @PiggyBankKids dinner. Fantastic evening, sang 3 songs after the dinner too"

"met Gordon Brown, Sarah Brown,David Tennant,James Caan,Joanne Harris,Helen Scott Lidgett,Gil McNeil,plus some good friends, the list goes on"

Stu Ness (who describes himself as Dad-guitar playing jazz pikey) tweeted
"Just played a gig to Gordon Brown, Richard Wilson and David Tennant! I just played for the Doctor!"

One interesting exchange happened between David Taylor (Chair of Labour Campaign for International Development. Parliamentary Assistant to Ann McKechin MP) and Sarah Brown (former Prime Minister Gordon Brown's wife) as he tweeted "I really want to go and say hi to David Tennant but I think he'll think I'm a wally!" Sarah Brown tweeted back "I will introduce you" and the photo below is the result:

David Tennant draws for Stars On Canvas

As part of their Stars On Canvas fund-raiser, David Tennant's artwork for The Willow Foundation is now online here.

The auction starts on Friday 26th November and all proceeds go to The Willow Foundation who arrange special days for seriously ill 16 to 40 year olds throughout the UK.

David has drawn a mug of tea with his signature in the background. It is dated 17th July 2010.

David Tennant in Children In Need Top 50

David Tennant's Tenth Doctor meeting the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) is at #9 in the 50 Greatest Moments of Children In Need!


If you missed the programme tonight it is being re-broadcast several times this week.

The most frequently and fastest updated David Tennant website

The tagline for DavidTennantOnTwitter.com is the most frequently and fastest updated website about David Tennant. To prove that, in October 2010 (when Single Father was broadcast) there were 176 updates to the website! (That's updates to the actual website and not just tweets.)

The number of updates for each month for the year so far are:

January - 153

February - 73

March - 84

April - 57

May - 49

June - 48

July - 89

August - 85

September - 92

October - 176

Consequently we receive several thousand hits on the website per day (and that's without running a forum).

Also, DavidTennantOnTwitter.com is pleased to announce that we now have over 25,000 followers on Twitter! That's about 10,000 more than any other David Tennant account on Twitter!

David Tennant's Single Father Viewing Figures and AI

David Tennant's drama Single Father aired on Sunday evenings at 9pm on BBC1 on four consecutive Sundays from 10th until 31st October.

It was scheduled against ITV's most popular drama of 2010 called Downton Abbey and had the disadvantage of starting the week after Downton Abbey so fought an uphill battle against ITV's existing audience, especially as their programme aired immediately after the very popular X Factor.

Consequently each week Single Father got less viewers than Downton Abbey but still obtained impressive numbers. To put this into perspective Sky had recently invested a lot of money and resources into drama on their channel and launched Thorne (starring David Morrissey) on the same night and at the same time as Single Father and, despite a massive (and therefore expensive) advertising campaign, only got an average of 390,000 viewers each week.

The final ratings for Single Father which includes those who recorded it and watched during the first week after the BBC1 broadcast but doesn't include iPlayer were:

Episode 1 = 6.04m
Episode 2 = 5.5m
Episode 3 = 5m
Episode 4 = 5.3m

The BBC will have been quite happy with these numbers, especially considering the viewer numbers kept quite steady (and in fact increased for the final episode despite there being little promotion for that episode and few, if any, trailers).

For the BBC the Appreciation Index (also known as the AI) is considered as important as the ratings. The AI is calculated out of 100 and is based on the appreciation a large group of a cross-section of the general public give each programme they watch.

Dramas on the whole do not score as high an AI as a programme which will appeal to a select audience. For example a programme about steam engines in the 1920s is more likely to only be watched by people with an interest in steam engines in the 1920s who are more predisposed to like that type of programme. In the case of a drama like Single Father the audience will be far more varied and will include the casual viewer who just won't like that drama or any type of drama. Consequently an AI for a drama above 85 is considered good and one above 90 is considered excellent.

The AI for each episode of Single Father was:

Episode 1 = 86.5
Episode 2 = 87.7
Episode 3 = 88.2
Episode 4 = 89.1

Consequently once again the BBC will have been happy with these results.

Press about David Tennant in BBC2 film United

Over the past 24 hours there have been a plethora of articles regarding David Tennant's involvement in the BBC2 film called United about the 1958 Munich Airplane Crash which involved the Manchester United football team.

Yesterday we posted links to the official BBC Press Release and the Press Association article but based on the BBC Press Release numerous newspapers and websites have listed the story including:

The Independent

The Telegraph (which focuses on it being shot in the North East)

Daily Mirror

Manchester Evening News

SpoilerTV

The Radio Times

Variety

Anglotopia

Monsters And Critics

TheaterMania

EnglandNews

RTE (Ireland)

The United section of DavidTennantOnTwitter.com has more info about this movie which starts filming later this month.

More about David Tennant in United movie (via the Daily Mail)

As posted by DavidTennantOnTwitter.com last Friday (5th), Baz Bamigboye has today printed in the Daily Mail about David Tennant's involvement in the forthcoming BBC film United about the 1958 air crash in Munich with the Manchester United football team aboard.

However Baz says that David Tennant will play Man United's trainer Jimmy Murphy and that he believes the film will be called United — The Busby Babes And The Munich Air Crash although everywhere else it has had the working title United.

The Daily Mail also says that Thomas Howes (who played William a footman in Downton Abbey) will ­portray the club’s captain Mark Jones and that they believe that Jim Carter (who played butler Mr Carson also in Downton Abbey) is in negotiations to be Manchester United's manager Matt Busby. Also Jack O’Connell (from Skins) will portray Bobby Charlton.

In case you are concerned that a drama about football will not interest you, the Daily Mail explains that "will show the tragedy of the air crash, but also explore how Busby and Murphy had built their team up with players such as Jones, Eddie Colman, ­Duncan Edwards and Charlton." The drama is written by Chris Chibnall and not a football writer.

The Daily Mail article also includes the emotive comment "the film will be seen through the eyes of Bobby Charlton, who was on the plane that crashed that February day in 1958. And the drama, written by Chris Chibnall for BBC Television, shows Charlton strapped into his seat, traumatised and terrified."

Filming on United starts later this month. The dates Saturday 20th and Monday 22nd have both been rumoured as the start date.

The photo below (from the Daily Mail) is of Jimmy Murphy who David Tennant will be playing and below that is Murphy's bio which contains a SPOILER regarding the fate of David's character.

James Patrick Murphy (known as Jimmy) was born on 8th August 1910 so was 48 at the time of the Manchester United crash.Jimmy Murphy was born in Rhondda, Wales and in 1924 represented Wales in a schoolboy international against England in Cardiff. He turned professional in February 1928 when he joined West Bromwich Albion as a 17 year-old.

Murphy made his debut in a 1–0 defeat away to Blackpool on 5 March 1930 and played one further league game during his first season. In the following season, 1930–31, West Bromwich Albion won promotion from the Second Division, but Murphy had yet to establish himself in the team so only made just two appearances. He became a regular in the team in the 1931–32 season and until the 1934–35 season he appeared 149 times in league and cup games. they also got though to the 1935 FA Cup Final, which they lost 4–2 to Sheffield Wednesday.

Murphy played more than 200 times for Albion before moving to Swindon Town in 1938 but the Second World War curtailed his club career. Murphy was also called up to the Welsh national team during the 1930s.

During the Second World War, Murphy was giving a speech about football to a band of troops and in attendance was Matt Busby. Busby was so impressed by Murphy's speech that upon his appointment as manager of Manchester United, he made Murphy the first signing of his tenure at the club. In his role as assistant manager, it was Murphy's responsibility to scout and train the young footballers who were to become the "Busby Babes", which included many of the footballers who were involved in the plane crash including Duncan Edwards and Bobby Charlton. Prior to this the larger teams had mainly bought rather than developed their players but instead Busby decided to slowly replace the older and more experienced players in his team with their youth players.

Jimmy, as assistant manager, was responsible for developing these young boys into the world class professionals that they became. As Jimmy Murphy had been away managing the Welsh team in a World Cup qualifying game, David Tennant's character in the drama was not on the plane which crashed in 1958. Afterwards he temporarily took over as manager while Matt Busby recovered from his injuries and, having assembled a substitute team, steered United to the FA Cup final. Murphy also managed Wales at the 1958 FIFA World Cup Finals, when they reached the quarter-finals in their only appearance in a World Cup. They lost 1-0 to Brazil (the eventual winners), to a goal by the young Pelé.

Despite being approached to manage Brazil, Juventus and Arsenal, he remained as assistant manager at Old Trafford until 1971. Murphy chose never to become manager of the club because of his hate of the limelight, he loved working in the background but never aspired to fulfil the job of manager.

He died on 14th November 1989 aged 79. In Murphy's honour after his death, Manchester United commissioned the "Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year Award", to be given to the best player in the club's youth system in the previous season.

David Tennant at the Legally Blonde Media Night on Tuesday 9th November 2010

Last night David Tennant attended a Media Night of Legally Blonde in London. This event was to celebrate the new cast members who have recently joined the show - Carley Stenson and Denise Van Outen.

Back in January Legally Blonde made the newspapers because, instead of a Press Night, the producers of the musicial invited the critics to view the play over a few nights and then held a Gala Opening on 13th January 2010 (which David Tennant also attended).

Tonight was David's third viewing of the show as he also attended a special performance on 25th June 2010. (Former Doctor Who Peter Davison is also in Legally Blonde.)

So far no photos of David Tennant at either the theatre or at the after show party last night have been posted onto the internet but there were several tweets about him being there.

Grazia magazine tweeted "At legally blonde media night along with Gok, Russell Tovey, GMTV's Richard Arnold and Harry from the only way is Essex. Sensing a theme."

"Oooh and David Tennant. Best looking man to ever have manned the tardis."

And later they tweeted "Poor David Tennant getting mobbed by grannies!"

Woman's Own magazine tweeted "Ooooh, guess who crashed our party last night? Stephen Fry, David Tennant, Simon Callow, Frank Skinner, Tina O'Brien... and the gang from The Only Way Is Essex. Top night!"

More Magazine tweeted "Also spotted David tennant at the legally blonde after party. Loved that too!"

JAMESINREHAB tweeted "Legally blonde: Denise van outen, Sheridan Smith, Carly Stenson.... Plus Duncan James, Stephen fry, David tennant, & this is Essex crew! "

peterbramah tweeted "David Tennant, Russell Tovey, Tina O'Brian (+ American boy) Simon Callow, Brian Friedman, Duncan James all in the audience at Legally Blonde."

This morning Radio One presenter Natalie Jamieson tweeted "Ow eyes don't want to open had late one at press night for Legally Blonde musical gd crowd incl Stephen Fry, David Tennant, Gok Wan..."

And Sonja Stephen tweeted "Legally Blonde is just as good the second time. David Tennant sitting right infront of me. He seems to be having fun."

(The photo above is from when David attended the musical in January.)

David Tennant to read Book At Bedtime

For the week commencing Monday 22nd November (Monday to Friday) at 10.45pm on BBC Radio4 on the Book At Bedtime, David Tennant will be reading Antoine Calmet's accounts of real Vampires.

Book At Bedtime is a long running show on Radio 4 which is broadcast for 15 minutes from 10.45pm each weekday evening.

David Tennant RUMOUR regarding BBC United project

It’s NOT confirmed but David Tennant’s name has been linked to a new project called United believed to be in advanced stages of pre-production.

Produced by BBC Films, World Productions and North East Screen and due for release in 2011, United looks at the Manchester United Air Disaster in Munich in 1958.

The Munich air disaster took place on 6th February 1958 when a British European Airways Flight crashed on its third attempt to take off from a slush-covered runway at Munich-Riem Airport in Munich, West Germany. On board the plane was the Manchester United football team, nicknamed the Busby Babes after the manager Matt Busby, along with a number of supporters and journalists. 20 of the 44 people on board the aircraft died in the crash. The injured, some of whom had been knocked unconscious, were taken to hospital in Munich where 3 more died, resulting in a total of 23 fatalities with 21 survivors.

This drama has the working title United and will be directed by James Strong who directed David Tennant in several episodes of Doctor Who. It will be produced by Julia Stannard for World Productions for the BBC.

United is based on an idea by James Strong and written by Chris Chibnall who wrote several episodes of Torchwood and the Doctor Who episode 42 which featured David as The Doctor.

Filming is expected to take place in Newcastle and so far David Tennant is the only actor linked with it but he is NOT confirmed.

David Tennant on cover of Sarah Jane Adventures DVD box-set

On Monday (1st) The Sarah Jane Adventures Series Three box-set was released and it includes a photo of David Tennant as The Doctor on the cover as David's episode is included.

The narrative is that it features David's final scenes as The Doctor.




Click here to purchase it.

Please note that DavidTennantOnTwitter.com does not make any money from this link.

David Tennant presents How Roald Dahl Shaped British Pop

The BBC have announced that on Monday 22nd November at 10pm on BBC Radio 2 David Tennant will present 'How Roald Dahl Shaped British Pop'.

Click here to read the BBC press release but, as it will disappear after it is broadcast it says:

"How Roald Dahl Shaped British Pop
Monday 22 November
10.00-11.00pm BBC RADIO 2

On the 20th anniversary of Roald Dahl's death, David Tennant tells a new tale of the unexpected – the stamp he has left on the world of pop.

Kate Nash reveals how Dahl's fantastical children's books have influenced her own storytelling style, stirring her to invent surreal characters and magical places in songs like Mariella and Little Red.

Kelly Jones of the Stereophonics explains how he found inspiration for songs, such as I Stopped To Fill My Car Up, in Dahl's grisly, suspenseful short stories.

Plus, David reveals how a song about Willy Wonka – The Candy Man – gave Rat Pack legend Sammy Davis Jr his only US No. 1.

Presenter/David Tennant, Producer/Chris Walsh-Heron"