This was posted on Twitter the other day and I felt compelled to write a post about it. It seems there is a city named Port Tennant in South Wales, and it’s located just up the road from Port Talbot, where Michael grew up:
Could it be Fate? Kismet? Destiny? Whatever you want to call it, however you want to define Michael and David’s relationship–colleagues, best friends, lovers–them finding each other seems like it was almost certainly meant to be.
We know of course that Tennant isn’t David’s real last name, and that he changed it when he became an actor. Pure coincidence, one could say, that he chose the name Tennant. But that’s the thing, isn’t it?
Choices. All the little choices that were made along the way that led to something much bigger.
Michael’s parents chose to move back to Port Talbot and raise him there. David chose to change his last name from McDonald to Tennant. We know he saw Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys mentioned in a magazine, but still. Of all the names in the wide world, for him to choose that name is somehow nothing short of extraordinary.
The first thread in the path. A connection, an invisible rope tying Michael and David together long before they could see it. The universe working its mysterious magic, ever so slowly.
And then, years later, Bright Young Things:
Another thread. Another choice–Stephen Fry putting Michael and David in the same movie, though they never shared the screen. Something pulling them closer, but not yet completely together, because Fate works on its own timeline.Â
You can see it there, at the BYT premiere. Soulmates in waiting, somewhere in the background of each other’s lives, aware of but never fully appreciating their presence. The barely visible beginnings of a majestic structure waiting to be built. The outline of something grand. Something timeless.
And then…Good Omens. At last, Michael and David’s paths converged–from Port Talbot to Port Tennant, from Scotland to Soho.
Once again, little choices ended up making a big difference. The choice to film GO now, instead of twenty or thirty years earlier. Michael being cast as Aziraphale instead of Crowley. Michael choosing to play Aziraphale instead of Crowley. The choice to fight for David as Crowley, despite every objection.
In the end, the result of those choices was pure magic.
This is it, the universe said. This is the right moment. This is when they need each other.
Three years after season one (and on the verge of season two), we can still see it. A connection that has endured through a pandemic, through chaos and uncertainty, and that only seems to be growing stronger with every passing day.
Destiny, having staked its claim long ago, now sits in the distance, watching, smiling. You made so many choices. Choices that needed to be made. But the path was already clear. I just left the threads there for you to find.
“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where, I love you directly without problems or pride: I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love, except in this form in which I am not nor are you, so close that your hand upon my chest is mine, so close that your eyes close with my dreams.” - Pablo Neruda
