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New Statesman
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New Statesman
When David Tennant met Gordon Brown
Illustration by Ellie Foreman-Peck Gordon Brown has just got off a plane from a speaking engagement in the US, and arrives at Somerset House in London with his questions for David Tennant written out on a scrap of boarding pass. Tennant is soon to set off to film another season of the randy Eighties classic, Jilly Cooper's Rivals. After season one, he thought he should rebalance himself with some Shakespeare, and took on Max Webster's innovative 'binaural' Macbeth – the one with headphones – which Brown saw at the Donmar and enjoyed. Their shared Church of Scotland work ethic is just one of the things that unites the pair, who have met many times. While Brown was writing op-eds aged 11 suggesting Harold Wilson for prime minister, Tennant was deciding, aged three, that he wanted to be Doctor Who. He is about to star in ITV's drama The Hack as the investigative journalist Nick Davies, who played a key role in uncovering the News International phone-hacking scandal. It is a subject close to Brown's heart: in 2011, he spoke out in the Commons about Rupert Murdoch's 'criminal media nexus' and just last month issued a new complaint against his empire. Tennant is an ambassador of Brown's Multibank initiative and has just filmed an ad for it, giving one of his Midas-like voiceovers to a concept he finds 'really simple, and really clever'. Brown unfolds the boarding pass, and they begin. Gordon Brown: We are both sons of ministers. Your father seems to have been someone who could have been an actor as well? David Tennant: Definitely. There was a lot of theatricality in his preaching. He did say that there was a moment when he wondered if being an actor was something he'd like to do. But if there were very few precedents in my life, there were none in his. It was just not something that he felt there was any access to. He grew up in Bishopbriggs and I don't think he knew anyone who'd ever done anything like that. Initially, he went into trade, you know, and he worked on cars, and then he was called to the ministry. That was his performance. GB: Growing up, what I was aware of was that the attention was on you as the child of a minister; it was almost like a pressure. I think your father was the chaplain to the school as well? And so was my father. You're trying to become anonymous, or you're trying to be different and suddenly, everybody will say, 'Ah, that's your father!' DT: I didn't mind when my father came into the school, because he wasn't difficult to watch. He'd always come with something quite entertaining. I think he was aware of his audience! Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Kate Mossman: Is it true that you wanted to be an actor from the age of three? DT: Yes. It doesn't really make sense. And now, having recently had children who are three, I think how could I have possibly understood what that was? It was watching Doctor Who that sparked it. That's how I can date it, because it was Jon Pertwee turning into Tom Baker, which was in 1974, so I was three years old. GB: It was quite an amazing phenomenon, Doctor Who; I mean, it changed the whole nature of television, really, because it was other-worldly, it was sort of eccentric, but also just brilliantly scripted. Then did you start performing at school? DT: As much as I could. Gypsum's Journey was a big one, in Primary 6: it was my first sort of title role. The music teacher wrote the songs for it. I can still remember a couple of them – I'm not going to give you a rendition now, because it wouldn't work in cold, hard print. But I remember the lines for that better than for work I did a few weeks ago. In your line of work, you have to remember statistics and facts, and they have to be very specific – there must be times when you're addressing the UN and you get your statistics muddled up… GB: The good thing about statistics is people are bamboozled by them, and if you get them wrong, nobody quite knows for sure until a few hours later, at least. I have made mistakes. So you get to the age of five and you're already two years into your… DT: My acting career! I knew I was headed to drama school. I don't think everyone else necessarily accepted that that was inevitable. As you should, as a parent, mine said, 'Make sure you get as many exams as possible, make sure you get a wide range of qualifications', because even if you make it into drama school, it doesn't necessarily mean that you'll work at the other end of it. But I did; at 17 I went to what is now the Royal Conservatoire in Glasgow. I had to audition, and I was very green, I didn't really understand what was appropriate. You have to do a classical and a modern work – a speech from each. And I did Hamlet, because we were studying it in school. I did 'Now might I do it pat', when he's about to kill Claudius, and I brought a kitchen knife and had it in my hand, because I thought I needed props. GB: A danger walking the streets! DT: I know, I could have been arrested. And then I did a bit of Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman, which I'd also done at school, who was a sort of 65-year-old man: a brilliant, brilliant play – utterly inappropriate for a 17-year-old from Paisley! KM: Gordon, you're a big Shakespeare reader – which of his characters are you most invested in? GB: You know in the original pre-Shakespeare story of Macbeth, Banquo is complicit with Macbeth. They changed it for the Shakespeare version because the censor would never have allowed it through: Banquo was now seen to be an ancestor of James I, and therefore he had to be rehabilitated as a good person. It's interesting how much censorship there was. Shakespeare couldn't really go head-on; he could send messages, but he couldn't go head-on. Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, as I understand it, to warn people about the break-up of the kingdom if someone like Macbeth takes over from the good Duncan, so it's really to say James VI is OK. But Julius Caesar was written when Queen Elizabeth I was still around, and its message is: 'Don't play around with the possibility of tyranny, because you think you don't like the person who's ruling you – you replace them and it's anarchy.' It shows how killing Caesar led to all sorts of other consequences – not that he was a good guy, but that what happened afterwards was brutal. KM: There seems to be a bit of a golden age of political theatre at the moment – what have you learned about Westminster from our modern political plays? Can Shakespeare tell us just as much? GB: I've been to some, but I don't say, 'This is what I want to watch.' I've never watched, for example, the Murdoch series – Succession – because I feel I lived through it! I don't watch any of these films or plays about contemporary events. DT: I'm not sure if it's a golden age. Politics and playwrighting have always gone together. Shakespeare's history plays are all pretty political, John Osborne shook the cage in the Fifties, the agitprop theatre of the Seventies and Eighties was making – often quite unsubtle – political points. These days we've got James Graham and Jack Thorne and a slew of writers who are continuing the tradition of writing about the world and society in a way that's political and personal. Drama is always political because it's about human beings and how we interact with the world around us. Maybe it just seems more political when the personal feels so close to the politics of the day. We're right in it at the moment… KM: David, you're due to star in The Hack, the ITV series about the phone-hacking scandal, in which Gordon is played by Dougray Scott. GB: Dougray came to Kirkcaldy to see me, and I didn't quite know why. We talked for an hour, and he clearly was trying to get all my hand movements. Do you do the same when you're preparing for a part? DT: Well, I play the journalist Nick Davies in The Hack. I met him a few times, and there's also quite a lot of footage of him, so you can study that. But it's not really about an impersonation as such, and also most members of the public aren't going to be aware of exactly what Nick Davies is like. But it's still a useful starting point, if you're able to meet someone. Gordon, what's the experience of watching yourself being portrayed, because that's happened a few times? GB: The thing you think – well, you must be the same – is: 'The Scottish accent, how is that being done?' Though in Fife, people say my accent is not that Scottish… DT: Well, that's the danger of being an ex-pat, isn't it? [Tennant's wife] Georgia accuses me, whenever we're in Scotland or around Scottish people, of my accent becoming very broad. Do you get that? GB: Oh, yeah. Same, same. I'm sure I do that! DT: Yes, I deny doing it, but it is probably true, and probably inevitable. KM: Gordon, you're proposing so many reforms to the way that charity works: could you talk a little bit about the importance of philanthropy? Have you both had more of an involvement with charity work because of your upbringing? GB: My father stands before me like a mountain. And I think it must be something a bit similar for you, David. He wasn't oppressive, I was never asked not to do something or told not to do something, but there was a sort of moral core about him. But David – Cancer Research, Baby Lifeline, LGBT, Circle, kids' Scope, mental health, Children in Need, Big Night In, Comic Relief. I mean, that is only a small sample of the number of charities that you've been helping. DT: I don't know that I ever feel like I do very much, though. I don't know that I necessarily always have a particular reason to be following a particular cause. Somebody presents something and it sounds like a good idea, and you kind of think, 'Well, that's connecting with me right now: that feels like it's worthwhile. I've been thrilled to be part of the Multibank. It's a brilliant idea, a really clear, simple idea. And then sometimes I support a cause because it's not loud enough and maybe I can help make it a bit louder. But, listen: I think I could do a lot more than I do. GB: You're sounding Scottish – the old Presbyterian… Lonely at the top: Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in his union days, being hoisted aloft by fellow metalworkers at a rally near São Paulo in 1979. Photo by Claudinei Petroli / AFP via Getty Images DT: I know, but you know what it's like. It's that Presbyterian ethic that has you believe you can never actually be doing enough; that you're never as good a person as you'd like to think you are and that there must be a hair shirt somewhere you should be struggling into! GB: What I think is happening at the moment is that there are a lot of people who want to help, but we don't always find the best ways of helping them do it. One of the things that's broken down to some extent is community engagement: the Mothers' Union and the Women's Institute just don't have the kind of memberships they used to have. The Boys' Brigade don't have the kind of memberships, trade unions have about half the members they had at their peak. Political parties are the same. You've got less engagement in your communities, and I think that's one of the reasons that people feel distant from what's happening around them. Is the alternative social media? But you're talking to people in silos… DT: And it's not face-to-face connection. There seems to be a race to cruelty in that world – it feels very difficult to have rational debate. GB: I think we need to encourage more volunteering and new types of endeavour. What kind of organisation would young people relate to now? Park runs, for example, are becoming very popular, but traditional organisations are not working. And then, how do you persuade people to give more financially? The tax system could be better in offering a greater incentive. Companies could do more; some of the biggest companies in Britain give very little to charity. The whole point of the Multibank was to bring together companies who've got surplus goods, charities who know the people who need these goods, and foundations that can help finance the sort of distribution and the transportation. It's environmental as well, because it's anti-pollution and it's trying to create a circular economy. Child poverty is something that you feel as strongly about, David, as I do. Is there anything that you feel from your experiences – both as a parent and from seeing, going round Britain – that would make a difference? DT: I think it's allowing people to find the joy in intervention. It feels quite hard to get out from under the sense that you are powerless. We need to empower everyone to believe they can make a difference, that there's something they can do that will effect actual change. Because if everyone can do a bit, we will manage a lot. But that's quite hard to hold on to when the world feels difficult and onerous and like there are forces at work that are just so beyond our control. GB: As far as the poverty problem in the United Kingdom is concerned, what would you want the government to do? DT: [Laughs] That's not a question for me… GB: Do you know this great story about Lula? Before Lula became president of Brazil, he was a young trade union leader. 'When I was a trade unionist,' he said, 'people would say, 'Things are terrible in Brazil, what's gone wrong, who's to blame?'' And he used to reply, 'The government.' And he said, 'Then I became the leader of the trade union and people would say, 'Things are still going wrong, who's to blame?'' And he said, 'The government'. 'And then I became the leader of the opposition, people said, 'Who's to blame?' – the government. And then I became the government, and people said, 'Who's to blame? Things are still awful.'' And he said, 'America'! That's the end of his story! [See also: Gordon Brown: Child poverty is a scar on our national conscience] Related
The Independent
12-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
David Tennant calls new phone hacking drama ‘one of the stories of our time'
David Tennant has emphasised the importance of his forthcoming ITV phone hacking drama The Hack. The Doctor Who actor, 53, will star as investigative journalist Nick Davies in the seven-part drama, which is written and produced by part of the team behind last year's hit series Mr Bates vs The Post Office. Set between 2002 and 2012, the series will focus on the phone hacking scandal that blew open unethical practices by journalists, who tapped into the voicemails and phones of celebrities, murder victims and their families, and the royal family. It led to the shutting down of the News of the World after 168 years in operation. Tennant will appear alongside Robert Carlyle as former Met Police detective chief superintendent Dave Cook and Toby Jones as former editor-in-chief of The Guardian, Alan Risbrudger. Speaking to comedians James Acaster and Ed Gamble on their Off Menu podcast, Tennant said that shooting the series had been 'very intense'. 'Just because there's a lot of quite complicated information in that,' he explained. 'I'm playing a journalist who sort of broke the case open, and there's just a lot of quite technical stuff. 'And obviously you have to be very specific on that because there's a lot of lawyers watching to make sure you don't say the wrong thing.' The Good Omens star continued: 'That was quite a long shoot and that was very intense. But you then do something like that and you're very proud to be part of something like that. It's one of the stories of our time that needs telling.' Written by Bafta, Tony and Olivier award-winning screenwriter, Jack Thorne, The Hack will interweave the real life stories of Davies, who discovers evidence of phone hacking at News of the World, and Cook as he investigates the unsolved murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan. 'This is a strange and deceptive piece of our recent history,' said Thorne when the series was announced in January. 'One with so many layers to it. I thought, as someone who is interested in politics, I understood everything that happened. I did not.' He added: 'It's a fight for the truth that really shocked me. That is why it matters to tell this story now in an age where the truth seems more in danger than ever. 'It is a true honour to be bringing this story to the screen... I hope we find a way to do justice to the complexity of what happened and of celebrating the incredible reporting that sits underneath it.' The Hack will air on ITV and STV and be available for streaming on ITVX and STV Player later this year. An exact release date is yet to be announced .
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
ITV Is Reportedly 'Early Stage' Talks To Merge Production Business With All3Media Owner RedBird IMI
Talk about ITV selling off or merging its production business has been one of the British television industry's longest-running rumors. Reuters is reporting that the company is in talks to merge ITV Studios, which is responsible for series such as Love Island and Netflix's Fool Me Once, with RedBird IMI's All3Media. More from Deadline Suranne Jones & Jodie Whittaker Teaming On ITV Heist Thriller 'The Hack': ITV Unveils Phone Hacking Drama Series Starring David Tennant As Bullish Investigative Journalist Nick Davies, Robert Carlyle & Toby Jones Sky Studios Elstree Exec To Lead Perth Film Studios; ITV Studios Nordics Takes 'Extraordinary' Format; 'Fallen' Season 2 Ordered - Global Briefs This comes after RedBird IMI completed its $1.45B takeover of The Traitors production group last year. Last November, ITV shares surged after a report that the commercial broadcaster was in talks to carve up or sell its production business with France's TF1 and Formula One owner CVC Capital Partners among the interested parties. The latest report suggests that ITV could merge Studios with All3Media, which operates labels including Studio Lambert and Neal Street Productions with RedBird IMI, which is run by Jeff Zucker, and ITV holding stakes. If such a deal did go through – and any such merger would take a long time even if it did – it would create a major new production business that rivals the size of Black Mirror owner Banijay, BBC Studios and Fremantle. Deadline has reached out to ITV and RedBird IMI for comment. Best of Deadline 'Bridgerton' Season 4: Everything We Know So Far 'Knives Out 3': Everything We Know About The Second Rian Johnson Sequel 2025 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Oscars, Spirits, Grammys, Tonys, Guilds & More
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
European Film Industry Heavyweights Call for Regulation of Tech Giants in Trump Era
Some of the biggest names in the European film industry have joined a call for more regulation of global tech platforms in wake of Donald Trump's presidential inauguration and vocal support of his new government by tech billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. An online petition titled 'Defend Our Democracies Against Tech Giants' launched on Jan. 24 has gathered more than 1,000 signatures from European industry professionals, including such bold-faced names as Oscar winners Juliette Binoche and Volker Schlöndorff, two-time Palme d'Or winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, and arthouse directors Marjane Satrapi, Rebecca Złotowski and Jessica Hausner. More from The Hollywood Reporter Meet Hollywood's New It Boy John Gore Studios Launches With Hilary Strong as CEO and Joan Collins, Luke Hemsworth Projects David Tennant, Robert Carlyle Lead 'The Hack', ITV Drama on U.K.'s Notorious Phone-Hacking Scandal Other prominent film and cultural figures in Europe, including Venice film festival director Alberto Barbera and Nobel Prize-winning Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek, are among the names on the petition. 'How much longer will we tolerate that digital giants from the USA, Russia and China openly defy European laws and challenge our democracies?' reads the petition, in part, decrying what it calls an unprecedented offensive against European digital regulations being waged by U.S. tech giants with 'only one goal: To allow the unrestricted spread of disinformation, the most dangerous hate speech, calls for violence and the most deceitful conspiracy theories.' The petition calls out various digital platforms for their alleged violations of European regulations, including alleged non-compliance with European Union (EU) regulations by Musk's X; Zuckerberg's Meta, which recently ended its fact-checking program in the U.S. (it still complies with mandatory fact-checking in Europe); data security issues with Chinese-owned TikTok; and illegal content circulating on Telegram, the social media platform created by Russian programmer Pavel Durov. Unlike the U.S. where there are few legislative guardrails for digital players, the EU has a number of laws on the books designed to enforce European laws on data protection and illegal content, including hate speech. Many in Europe see a new threat from digital platforms being weaponized to undermine or destabilize their democratic systems. Musk has been vocal in his support of far-right groups in the U.K. and Germany and tweeting against government politicians. Over the weekend, Musk took part in the official campaign kickoff for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party — joining the event via live video link. 'Only massive civic mobilization will ensure fair, balanced and protective digital regulation for all European citizens,' the petition concludes. 'Together, let's demand a digital space that aligns with our values and rights.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2025: Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar & SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and More Hollywood's Highest-Profile Harris Endorsements: Taylor Swift, George Clooney, Bruce Springsteen and More Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2024: Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, Olivia Rodrigo and More
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
ITV to air drama about Guardian's role in breaking phone-hacking scandal
An ITV drama about the Guardian's role in breaking the phone-hacking scandal that closed the News of the World will be aired later this year starring Toby Jones from Mr Bates vs The Post Office. The seven-part series will follow both the work of the Guardian journalist Nick Davies, played by David Tennant, and the police investigation into the unsolved murder of the private investigator Daniel Morgan. Jones, whose performance last year portraying the campaigner Alan Bates helped trigger a national outcry over the treatment of victims of the Post Office scandal, will play the part of the former editor-in-chief of the Guardian Alan Rusbridger. Davies was responsible for uncovering the widespread use of phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch's the News of the World, including the revelations of unlawful accessing of the mobile phone voicemail of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler. Cara Theobold, who starred as Ivy Stuart in the ITV drama Downton Abbey, is playing the role of Guardian reporter Amelia Hill, who worked with Davies on the paper's investigation. The News of the World closed in July 2011 and the Sunday tabloid's former editor Andy Coulson was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2014 but the hacking scandal continues to dog Murdoch's media empire. Last week the the Duke of Sussex and the former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson accepted a costs and damages settlement of more than £10m from Murdoch's News Group Newspapers (NGN), which owns the Sun. Harry also received 'a full and unequivocal apology' over 'the phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators instructed by them' at the News of the World. NGN also admitted and apologised to Harry for 'the serious intrusion by the Sun between 1996 and 2011 into his private life, including incidents of unlawful activities carried out by private investigators working for the Sun', in the first admission of unlawful behaviour at the group's flagship newspaper in the UK. Murdoch's parent company in the UK, News UK, also owns the Times and the Sunday Times. The drama series, titled The Hack, is set between 2002 and 2012 and will interweave how the hacking scandal was uncovered by Davies with the repeatedly botched police investigations into the murder of Morgan. On 10 March 1987, Morgan, 37, was found dead in the car park of the Golden Lion pub in Sydenham, south London, with an axe embedded in his head. He was a private detective based in south London who, with his business partner, Jonathan Rees, ran an agency called Southern Investigations. Rees would go on to carry out extensive work for the News of the World. The agency was said to be a 'hub of corruption' through which police officers were paid for stories. The Met announced in 2007 that the motive for Morgan's murder was probably that he 'was about to expose a south London drugs network possibly involving corrupt police officers'. The Met commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, admitted in 2023 that 'corruption' and 'professional incompetence' had marred investigations into the case. Robert Carlyle will play the role of the former Met DCS Dave Cook, who was described by the Morgan family as the only police officer they could trust. He ran the fifth and final investigation in 2006 into Morgan's murder. It collapsed in court in 2011 because of claims around the police handling of 'supergrass' witnesses. The Hack was filmed last year and will air later this year on ITV and STV and be available for streaming on ITVX and STV Player. The Hack's executive producer, Patrick Spence, who was also behind Mr Bates vs the Post Office, said: 'It's clear that several questions remain unanswered. This drama is our contribution to that conversation.' The series is being written by the Bafta-winning screenwriter Jack Thorne, whose previous works include the 2019 series His Dark Materials. Thorne said: 'This is a strange and deceptive piece of our recent history. One with so many layers to it. I thought, as someone who is interested in politics, I understood everything that happened. I did not. 'It's a fight for the truth that really shocked me. That is why it matters to tell this story now in an age where the truth seems more in danger than ever.' ITV Studios is the producer and co-financier of the drama along with Stan in Australia. A spokesperson for News UK declined to comment.
