The love Doctor
(This feature originally appeared in the Daily Record on April 30, 2015, with Peter Davison previewing the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular. I was over the moon - a Daily Record staff reporter was meant to be doing it, then she went on holiday, so ask they asked the person who knew a wee bit about Doctor Who to do it - I wasnât complaining!)
DOCTOR Who star Peter Davison has revealed he knew his daughter was going on dates with Scots Time Lord David Tennant before SHE did.
Davison said he knew something was going on after his daughter Georgia Moffett and 10th Doctor Tennant, from Paisley, kept going to the theatre together.
David married Georgia in December 2011 and they have three children, Olive, Wilfred and Tyler, the actressâs son from a previous relationship who David adopted four years ago.
He was speaking before a trip to Glasgow next month to host the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular at the Hydro, which celebrates the worldâs longest running science-fiction TV series.
Peter, 64, said: âI knew there was something in the air before she did.
âShe worked with him and afterwards he kept inviting her to the theatre. She said to me, âHeâs wanting to take me to Shakespeare shows. He wants to go to the theatre all the time.â I said, âObviously he likes you,â and she said, âNo, I donât think itâs that â I just think he wants to educate me.â I told her, âNo, no, no, thatâs not the way it works...â
âWhen they turned up to one of the shows I was in â I think it was Spamalot â I definitely knew.â
Peter, who played the Fifth Doctor from 1982-84, will be part of the Spectacular at The SSE Hydro, Glasgow on May 29. It features music from Doctor Who, with some of the iconic monsters appearing on stage.
One person who wonât see the show, which is playing at venues around the UK, is Tennant himself. The Broadchurch star is in America shooting Marvelâs Jessica Jones, in which he plays Zebediah Kilgrave, known as the Purple Man.
Peter said: âAt the moment heâs in America filming something with Marvel for Netflix, but Iâm sure my daughter will come along.â
Working in Scotland is nothing new for Davison.
He said: âMy first big job was at the Edinburgh Lyceum. I did a season in the Nottingham Playhouse and then I joined the Young Lyceum Theatre Company, and did the Edinburgh Festival.
âI also did a detective show up in Glasgow as well.â
With Peter Capaldi as the current TARDIS incumbent and the show being produced by Steven Moffat, from Paisley, Davison laughed: âThe Scots have taken over the programme â thereâs a Scottish producer and a Scottish Doctor, playing it with a Scottish accent.â
With three Scots Time Lords, Sylvester McCoy, from Dunoon, Tennant and Capaldi, from Glasgow, Davison admits family ties sway him to pick his favourite Doctor from north of the Border.
The former All Creatures Great and Small star said: âI would have to say it was David.
âHe did a fantastic job, even though he wasnât playing it as a Scottish Doctor. Itâs quite funny when he does the Doctor Who audiobooks, as he reads most of them in a Scottish accent and then does his London Doctor.
âSylvester was fantastic, but I didnât get to see much of him. You donât tend to watch the Doctors immediately after you, not because you donât like them, but you canât suspend your sense of disbelief. You know the process by which itâs made, so itâs quite difficult to watch.
âOne of the problems we had in my time was no special effects.
âWe would also get writers in who had worked on Softly Softly or something like that the previous week, and then theyâd come in and knock off a Doctor Who. Nowadays, itâs consistently well-written by people who love the genre.
âIt surprised me when it came back as such a prestigious show, but it was brilliant. Russell T. Davies did a great job. The fans have started making the show â Â people who had grown up watching myself and other Doctors â theyâve got into the business and wanted to carry on with it.
âWhen I made it, it was sold to 39 countries and spread far and wide while making the BBC lots of money, but it was never the prestigious programme it is now.â
The Symphonic Spectacular showcases the music written by Murray Gold for the revived TV series since 2005, and features 100 performers including the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and members of the BBC National Chorus of Wales, conducted by Ben Foster. Davison acted as presenter for the show in Australia and New Zealand.
He said: âAt heart itâs an orchestral concert playing the music from Doctor Who, but we have lots of extras â itâs done in a very exciting way with a symphonic orchestra, with specially edited clips on big screens, and thereâs monsters wandering around with Cybermen, the Silence and the Daleks.
âI then come on and introduce them âWhen you see it played by musicians together, itâs powerful stuff.â













