#3i6

David Tennant at Fan Expo Dallas 2024, 9.6.2024

Fan: Two of your most iconic roles, the Doctor and Crowley, they have scenes that span all of history, and I was just wondering, what was your favourite historical era to portray yourself in and why for both characters?

David: Well, both characters got to visit Shakespeare's Globe, and both times we got to film in Shakespeare's Globe, which exists in London - for anyone who wants to know - they rebuilt the theatre that Shakespeare would have performed in with his company of players, it's been rebuilt in the banks of the Thames, close towhere it would have been, and it's been rebuilt in as much historical detail as possible. And it now runs as a theatre. It's got a full cycle of plays. You can go to London tomorrow and se a show there. And as a set to film on it's the most extraordinary thing. It's completely realised. So you stand in this kind of circular place and you look around and you're in Elizabethan England. It's fantastic. So we got to film there on Doctor Who, which was wonderful, and we got to for Good Omens as well. So both those characters were filming those scenes which were supposed to take place in that time in the most extraordinary sense, that could never be... no production would be able to make it in such extraordinary detail. That was a real treat. So that was for both of those characters that would be... for me I'd say that was the most kind of immersive experience anyway.

The Arrangement was very simple, so simple in fact that it didn’t really deserve the capital letter, which it had got for simply being in existence for so long. It was the sort of sensible arrangement that many isolated agents, working in awkward conditions a long way from their superiors, reach with their opposite number when they realize that they have more in common with their immediate opponents than their remote allies. It meant a tacit non-interference in certain of each other’s activities. It made certain that while neither really won, also neither really lost, and both were able to demonstrate to their masters the great strides they were making against a cunning and well-informed adversary.

It meant that Crowley had been allowed to develop Manchester, while Aziraphale had a free hand in the whole of Shropshire. Crowley took Glasgow, Aziraphale had Edinburgh (neither claimed any responsibility for Milton Keynes, [Note for Americans and other aliens: Milton Keynes is a new city approximately halfway between London and Birmingham. It was built to be modern, efficient, healthy, and, all in all, a pleasant place to live. Many Britons find this amusing.] but both reported it as a success).

And then, of course, it had seemed even natural that they should, as it were, hold the fort for one another whenever common sense dictated. Both were of angel stock, after all. If one was going to Hull for a quick temptation, it made sense to nip across the city and carry out a standard brief moment of divine ecstasy. It’d get done anyway, and being sensible about it gave everyone more free time and cut down on expenses.

Aziraphale felt the occasional pang of guilt about this, but centuries of association with humanity was having the same effect on him as it was on Crowley, except in the other direction.

Besides, the Authorities didn’t seem to care much who did anything, so long as it got done.

David Tennant at the Emerald City Comic Con 3.3.2023:

Interviewer: Aziraphale and Crowley's relationship spans through centuries.

David: Yes.

Interviewer: So in that you play a lot of different Crowleys.

David: Yes.

Interviewer: Which one was your favourite to play?

David: Oooh. That's a good question. We had a great deal of fun coming up with the looks, obviously, because Crowley is always a sort of punk version of wherever he ends up. He likes to live very much at the sort of cutting edge of the moment in history that he's living through. Unlike Aziraphale, who just kind of bumbles on sort of wearing the same gear. Crowley likes to kind of jazz with the looks of the moment he's in. So was great fun to create them. Which was my favourite... probably I quite liked the Elizabethan look in the Shakespeare... where it was filmed in the Globe in the Shakespeare scene, with his little tiny spindly little beard. The armor was pretty exciting as well. Getting to wear a full suit of armor - incredibly uncomfortable. I mean... I defy anyone to fight a war in that stuff, really difficult. But it did feel very safe.

Interview: Was it pretty hot?