David Tennant: project updates, appearances, interview

• Comedy World Cup

The filming dates for Comedy World Cup have been released, plus the link to apply for tickets

Full details here

Pictures of 'David Tennant' from the Comedy World Cup advert which aired during the Paralympics broadcast last night are here

Source: David Tennant on Twitter

Reviews of today's pilot recording are here and here

Source: David_Tennant (twitter)  

• Lords of Time convention

With the news of the filming dates for Comedy World Cup confirmed, it means that David Tennant must be attending the Lords Of Time convention on Sunday 9th September as he is recording two episodes of Comedy World Cup on Saturday 8th.
Source: David Tennant on Twitter 

The organisers of the Lords Of Time Convention (taking place on Sunday 9th September) have added a link to order David Tennant's autograph for those people who can not attend . An autograph costs £25. 
 Source: David Tennant on Twitter 

• The Spies of Warsaw trailer

The BBC America trailer for Dramaville, which includes clips of The Spies Of Warsaw, is now on YouTube 

Source: David Tennant on Twitter

• Diary dates:

Sun 2 Sep -  David Tennant hosts the pilot of Comedy World Cup at RADA Studios in London.
Mon 3 Sep - Episode 14 of Tree Fu Tom (One For All) premières on CBeebies at 5.25pm.
Tues 4 Sep - 
Episode 15 of Tree Fu Tom (Treefle Tom) premières on CBeebies at 5.25pm.
Wed 5 Sep - Episode 16 of Tree Fu Tom (The Great Journey) premières on CBeebies at 5.25pm.
Thurs 6 Sep - The David Tennant read On Her Majesty's Secret Service audiobook is released.
Thurs 6 Sep - Episode 17 of Tree Fu Tom (Not So Fast) premières on CBeebies at 5.25pm.
Fri 7 Sep - Episode 18 of Tree Fu Tom (Hovering Humblebugs) premières on CBeebies at 5.25pm.
Sat 8 Sep - At 1.30pm David records episode one of Comedy World Cup at Teddington Studios and at 5pm he records episode two.
Sunday 9th Sept -  David Tennant will attend the Lords Of Time Fan Convention in Birmingham.
Source: David Tennant On Twitter

• INTERVIEW: Doctor Who's David Tennant Loves Spying and Shakespeare

The BBC veteran and Olivier Award winner spills all about his new miniseries, Spies of Warsaw, coming to the States, and why he worships the works of the Bard.

David Tennant is one of the British stage's most popular actors, having won awards and acclaim for his performances in such shows as Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing. Stateside, he is best known for his portrayal of the title character on the classic series Doctor Who -- and will reportedly take part in the series' upcoming 50th anniversary special next year -- and his work as Bartemous Crouch, Jr. in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Currently, Tennant is focusing on movies and television, and recently filmed BBC America's two-part period miniseries, Spies of Warsaw, in which he plays Colonel Jean-Francois Mercier, a somewhat dashing, somewhat vulnerable, somewhat tough spy. TheaterMania recently spoke to Tennant about the miniseries, his hopes of doing theater in the U.S., and why he loves Shakespeare.

THEATERMANIA: How did you like playing this character in Spies of Warsaw?

DAVID TENNANT: It was great. He's the hero of the piece, but he is very much his own man. He's very much the military man following the orders of his superiors until he decides that's not the course of action he's willing to follow and then he becomes a rebel, so that's an interesting character plot to follow.

TM: He sounds a little bit like James Bond? Is he?

DT: When the script first came in, it was pitched to me as the French James Bond, with all that that entails. And as with Bond, he's a bit of a womanizer. Part of the reason for that is that he is quite damaged and quite introspective and isn't willing to share his life with anybody, so he has a succession of brief and uninvested love affairs.

TM: So you are going back and forth now between television and theater. Was that always the career plan?

DT: Yeah, that's the dream (laughs). It's working out so far.

TM Would you consider doing any theater in the US?

DT: I'd love to, yes.

TM: You are really enamored of Shakespeare's work, aren't you?

DT: I am on the board of the Royal Shakespeare Company and a huge part of what they do is education and outreach -- partly just to educate an audience for themselves but also just to teach that sort of language so kids can appreciate it. I think Shakespeare is one of those things that you get very excited about when you do it and when you love it and when you feel like you own that language. Often it's a difficult thing to teach to kids because it can feel like a slow and a difficult thing, but it can be really inspiring!

TM: What Shakespeare play best characterizes life currently?

DT: I don't think there's just one. I think what's extraordinary about Shakespeare is just every one of his plays seems to be eternally relevant. Maybe The Taming of the Shrew or The Merchant of Venice are a bit harder to spin these days, but certainly something like Hamlet feels like it was written yesterday and, something like Measure for Measure has extraordinary questions about how we feel about fidelity and sex. I mean, it's a very modern play.

TM: Which is easier for you to do, Shakespeare or modern plays?

DT: Sometimes it's easier to do Shakespeare than more modern stuff because you have the rhythm of it and because when the language is really good, really juicy, it's much easier to get behind it and join it up in your head. The hardest plays to learn are badly written ones, so actually Shakespeare is not as hard to learn as some scripts.

Source: Theater Mania