Tree Fu Tom: Sophie Aldred and David Tennant voice new CBeebies series
Interview with David Tennant about his role as Twigs
Twigs is Tom’s best friend and sidekick – he goes everywhere with him
and is the comic heart of the show. This tiny acorn sprite is like the
wide-eyed, fun-loving, free-spirited and seriously silly child in each
of us.
Could you tell us who you play?
I play Twigs, who is Tom’s best friend. Twigs lives in Treetopolis and
he’s a tree sprite. He’s very small, he’s sort of based on an acorn and
he can retract himself into an acorn whenever he’s frightened. But he’s a
little anarchic, he’s a little crazy and he’s quite loud.
Could you sum up TFT and why parents should encourage their children to watch it?
I think TFT is imaginative, inventive, exciting, really good fun and it
looks beautiful. It looks like no expense has been spared and I can’t
wait to see all the finished episodes as everything I have seen so far
has been a visual feast. It’s an incredible wonderful thing that we have
channels like CBeebies that devote so much time and effort and skill to
telling wonderful stories.
Why did you decide to take the role?
Animation is a fascinating area from an acting point of view because
it’s not really like anything else because you are only providing a
portion of the performance. That’s very inspiring and it forces you to
do things in a different way – to tell stories through your voice. As an
acting challenge it was very appealing.
I think you always want to tell good stories and when you are doing
something for children you are always so aware of how formative those
stories will be. I was hugely formed by stories I was told as a child
whether that was in a book, the cinema, theatre or television and
probably television more than any medium is what influenced me as a
child and formed my response to literature, story-telling and,
therefore, the world around me.
Can you tell us about Tree Fu and Big World Magic?
There are points in every story where Big World Magic is required and
Tom gets the viewers to go through moves with him and that sends the
magic through to him. The idea being that the real world can influence
the Treetopolis world through the Tree Fu moves.
Tree Fu Tom encourages movements designed to help all children
particularly including those with Dyspraxia – can you tell us more about
that?
I would never have imagined that a programme like this could be used in
this way to help combat Dyspraxia. It will be fascinating to see if it
does have a positive effect. The children will certainly have a good
time trying!
How did you arrive at Twigs’ voice?
It’s sort of my voice but up an octave really. He’s smaller and lighter
so the voice had to be higher. Also there’s a thought that for
pre-school audiences you want to use higher registers in your voices. I
believe that the young audience hears higher voices better.
How do you gauge your performance for the audience?
I feel very un-practiced in performing to an audience this young so I am
very happy to be led by other people working on the show. Like getting
the level of jeopardy right, what is enough to be exciting but not too
much to be alarming. When you’re older you want to be scared because you
understand more where the boundaries between fantasy and reality are
and I suppose they are more blurred the younger you are. It’s
fascinating to work with people who completely understand that audience.
I’ve really enjoyed trying to understand that world.
I don’t think I have ever done anything for this age of children before,
a pre-school audience. Generally speaking we don’t have vivid memories
of that age and what influenced us yet clearly they are hugely formative
years and it’s really important that we can create television of a high
quality for that audience. I think the shows you remember are from when
you were a bit older. But I think the programmes you watch when you are
that young, when you are still learning about how the world works are
really important. It’s very exciting to be involved in something that
speaks to that audience.
Sophie Aldred (who plays Tom) has previously played Doctor Who’s
assistant and you have played The Doctor but in this the roles are
reversed, how does that feel?
Sophie and I had never met before so we didn’t have any previous dynamic
but I suppose that you can infer a dynamic from previous roles that we
have played. As an actor you just fit in with whatever the dynamics of
the characters are so she plays the hero and I’m the annoying sidekick.
You, Tim, Samantha and Sophie all recorded Tree Fu Tom in a booth together – how was that?
What’s great about the four of us being in a booth together is that you
can work off each other and you can be inspired by something that
someone else does and you can collectively move something in a different
direction.
Who’s the most animated in the booth?
Probably me! I do find it hard not to dance around a bit! Twigs is quite
active so it’s hard to contain that. It’s not very helpful in the final
edit if you knock a script off but sometimes you just have to go for
it!
Source: BBC
David Tennant to star in radio drama Love Virtually
The former Doctor Who star will feature opposite Emilia Fox in a tale of email romance.
A wayward email sparks a case of “online adultery” in a new Radio 4 Afternoon Drama starring David Tennant and Emilia Fox.
When Emmi (Fox) mistakenly sends an email to Leo (Tennant), romance quickly blossoms, and the two begin a shared secret life far removed from their day-to-day existences.
The problem is, Emmi is married – but does a virtual affair count as cheating? To what extent does the relationship rely on fantasy? And is it even possible to fall in love with someone you’ve never met?
Tennant fans will no doubt be answering "yes" to that last question as they make a date with David...
Afternoon Drama: Love Virtually, by Austrian novelist Daniel Glattauer, airs at 2:15pm on Thursday 8 March on BBC Radio 4.
Source: Radio Times
David Tennant - Sport Relief
David Tennant is appearing in a trailer for Sport Relief on BBC television.
Sport Relief is a biennial charity event from the team who run Comic Relief. It combines sport and entertainment to raise money to help vulnerable people in both the UK and the world's poorest countries.
It started in 2002 and in 2012 Sport Relief is during the weekend Friday 23rd to Sunday 25th March.
Since Saturday 11th February David Tennant is being shown in trailers on BBC television for Sport Relief dressed as a large ketchup bottle!
Read more and watch the trailer at David Tennant on Twitter
Brilliant new featurette about the making of Aardman Animations’s ‘The Pirates! Band Of Misfits’
A brilliant new featurette for Aardman Animations’ family adventure The Pirates! Band Of Misfits has been released this week, including commentary from writer Gideon Defoe, British actors Hugh Grant and David Tennant, and producer Julie Lockhart about how the film was created and just how long it took to make this beautifully crafted 3D stop-motion animation.
Read more and watch the featurette at BritScene
Final call: intimate moments of actors backstage
For the last 25 years, top actors – from Colin Firth to Tilda Swinton, Cate Blanchett to David Tennant – have allowed theatrical photographer Simon Annand into the private sanctums of their dressing rooms, capturing them as they prepare to go on stage. This series focuses on the final 30 minutes before curtain-up, known behind the scenes as 'the half': a time for sinking into character, touching up makeup – or having a Diet Coke break.
• The Half is on show at the Idea Generation gallery in Shoreditch, London, from 24 February
Source: The Guardian
