David Tennant opened up about his return to the character of Doctor Who in a surprise regeneration reveal as Jodie Whittaker made her final appearance earlier this year.
The Doctor Who legend appeared on Thursday morning’s instalment of This Morning and spoke with hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield in the ITV studio.
The Scottish actor remained tight-lipped about the upcoming storylines fans can expect on the BBC science fiction show, but he did share details of his experience returning to the role.
There had been months of speculation on how Jodie's exit as the Doctor would be handled ahead of Ncuti Gatwa joining in the lead role, but fans were left stunned when the star regenerated in the special episode only for David's Doctor to appear.
He described returning to the character of Doctor Who as ‘like being handed a very lovely present’.
He told Holly and Phil: “It was joyous. It was great fun. It was a very happy, joyous time 15 years ago.
“Returning to that could have been – who knows? It might have felt awkward, it might have been difficult.”
He then added: “I might not have been able to run as fast. But we had a lovely time. Russell T. Davies is back running the show. It felt like we had never been away. That’s all you’re getting.”
The actor has taken on the role of poisoned Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko in the new ITV drama Litvinenko.
Alexander, known as Sasha, died in agony in hospital in November 2006, aged 43, after two Kremlin agents poisoned his drink with the radioactive isotope Polonium-210 during a meeting in a hotel.
The former Federal Security Service officer had been an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin.
The Doctor Who star described recreating the hospital image of the ex-Federal Security Service officer that shocked the world.
He said: “One of the first things we did was re-create the image of him in the hospital bed, the image that went all around the world. That involved a lot of very skilled people. It took several hours.”
Tennant added: “Purely on a personal level, it’s something I’m very proud to have done.
“I feel like we gave it our best shot and we are, hopefully, honouring the memory of Sasha and the life’s work of Marina. That’s what we set out to do.”
The European Court of Human Rights ruled last year that Russia was responsible for Sasha’s killing.
