A Life in Time and Space - The Biography of David Tennant. Nigel Goodall
in Astrid as a character. Where Catherine Tate’s Donna in last year’s special was overbearing, Kylie Minogue’s Astrid is hardly there at all. It does make you wonder why casting Kylie was regarded as a coup. She’s a pop star – of course she’s going to say yes to being beamed into millions of homes in the run-up to Christmas. She’s got a duff album to sell. In truth, Kylie should be grateful to Doctor Who.’
According to the Doctor Who Magazine, in many ways ‘Voyage of the Damned’ was ‘a kind of sci-fi murder-mystery-festive-disaster epic’, that was 25-minutes too long in its first edit. ‘Imagine the 1997 Titanic movie (the one that David calls “a bit of a rubbish film”) crossed with The Poseidon Adventure and Kylie’s 2001 on A Night Like This tour, which boasted a joyous mix of spectacle, glitz and glamour, elaborate ocean-liner and spaceship backdrops and young men in sailor suits.’ And you will have a pretty good summation of the 2007 Christmas special
But despite what McLean reckoned, when it came to reviewing thousands of deaths over Doctor Who’s history, the Doctor Who Magazine included two of the demises from the episode in its Top 100: the death of Banakaffalata, one of the survivors of the initial collision, was placed in the ‘Top 20 Tearjerkers’ category, while Astrid’s death was given the title of ‘Doctor Who’s All-time Greatest Death Scene’. It was, according to most viewers, ‘gruesome, scary, self-sacrifice, tear-jerking, surprising, and her death would truly make a glass-eye cry.’
Although James Walton of the Daily Telegraph called the episode, ‘a winning mixture of wild imagination and careful writerly calculation’, writing in The Times, Tim Teeman didn’t quite agree. He thought the whole piece ‘sucked’ and described it as ‘boring’. But the Daily Mirror noted that it still had ‘some brilliant psychedelic Pink Floyd-esque imagery, great baddies, and neat jokes’, but lamented, ‘the plot was a mess, consisting mostly of one hi-tech chase scene after another, and it descended into noise and bluster.’ In another review, Alex Clark of the Observer wrote that the death toll was rather high, but he still thought the episode was, ‘an oasis of cheeky nonsense and careless invention’. Harry Venning, on the other hand, concluded his positive review in The Stage by saying it was, ‘… well up to Doctor Who’s impeccably high standards’. The episode also received massive coverage in Kylie’s native Australia, where the Daily Telegraph called it, ‘the best-ever Doctor Who episode’.
But then again it didn’t really matter what the critics thought. With a viewing figure of 13.8 million, the second-highest audience for any programme during 2007, and the highest for any Doctor Who episode since 1979, no one should have been concerned.
As one might expect, it wasn’t long after working together on the Doctor Who Christmas Special that Kylie and David were said to have struck up a warm rapport. So warm, in fact, reported some tabloids, that tongues had already started wagging in London. Just before Christmas, the pair were spotted making a secret visit to the Old Vic, slipping in and out of the theatre before anyone could spot them in the stalls, to watch Stephen Fry’s new witty version of Cinderella that starred Pauline Collins as the Fairy Godmother. And if that wasn’t enough tittle-tattle, elsewhere in the Daily Mail there were reports of the couple speaking regularly on the phone, as if they were already a couple separated only by their individual work commitments.
Even though David and Kylie remain good friends to this day, much the same as David was with Billie Piper after filming together, the stories of romance seemed somewhat far-fetched. By the time the tabloid press had suggested David and Kylie could be an item, David had already started to date Bethan Britton, from BBC South Wales, while Kylie revealed in an interview that she was also seeing someone again and even though she wouldn’t reveal any name, it seemed unlikely that it might be David.
If it was going to be anyone in the public limelight, then it would probably have been her ex-boyfriend Oliver Martinez, who, like David, still remained good friends with Kylie, even after their break up. Even though rumours were in circulation that the singer had been secretly travelling to Paris in an effort to sort out her relationship with Martinez, at the time of writing reports suggest this is not the case. Apparently, the only reason she was making such trips was to see Sheba, the actor’s dog. Kylie became very attached to the Rhodesian ridgeback during her illness, which ended up being featured in Kylie’s 2006 children’s book The Showgirl Princess.
Britton, on the other hand, a contracts assistant, didn’t have to worry about such concerns. Going out with David would be a lot simpler than it would be if she was Kylie. For starters, she lived with her parents in a terraced house in quiet Dinas Powys on the outskirts of Cardiff. And when she met David on the set of Doctor Who, according to insiders, there was instant chemistry. It was November 2007, more or less a month after he had split from his long-term girlfriend, actress Sophia Myles, who he also met on the set of the show. Soon he and Bethan began seeing each other outside the show and were spending cosy nights in at his apartment in Cardiff.
In the same month that they became an item, they were in most of the showbiz gossip columns when it was reported that Bethan had been spotted sneaking out in the early hours of the morning to put a parking permit on her sports car, wearing nothing but David’s pyjamas under a hooded jacket while he stood in the doorway, keeping a watchful eye until she returned.
They were also spotted on Bethan’s birthday, slipping into a nearby pub for what was described as ‘a romantic celebration drink’. As one observer remarked, ‘They sneaked in and sat in a corner, chatting quietly. They kept a low profile but were all over each other, holding hands and giggling like naughty teenagers. They make a lovely couple.’
But four months later, they went their separate ways. Bethan was said to have grown tired of David’s gruelling schedule. One of those ubiquitous friends who always seem to be on hand to comment about showbiz affairs of the heart told the News of the World, ‘She’s a lovely girl with a big heart but she was hardly seeing David because he’s so busy. She became increasingly fed up spending her nights alone and couldn’t see how they could plan a future together.’ It probably didn’t help matters that Bethan had gone public about their relationship, because if there is one thing that David hates more than anything else, it’s having reporters discussing his private life on the pages of the nation’s tabloids.
At the beginning of their relationship, it was obvious they really liked each other, but according to insiders at the time, ‘they don’t want to rush into anything too quickly and have decided to take it slowly. David has had relationships before, mainly with actresses, but their filming commitments always make it very hard to sustain a relationship. He loves the fact that Bethan has got a normal job but is still in the TV industry. They have both been hurt in the past, so they want to be careful. But the more time they spend with each other, the closer they get.’
Even when Bethan went public, and excitedly told reporters that she was seeing David and was extremely happy, it did seem like a match made in heaven: ‘He’s a great guy and I love being with him. It’s a serious relationship; things are going well.’
But as Now magazine noted, David wasn’t mourning the end of this relationship for long. Less than a month after splitting from Bethan, he told Denise Van Outen that he was now seeing Jennie Fava, a second assistant director, who moved to Cardiff to help film the fourth series of Doctor Who and had been seen leaving David’s apartment in the city. The pair adopted a dressed-down look for a theatre trip to see the acclaimed revival of Peter Schaffer’s Equus during its run at the Gielgud in London that opened that February with Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe in his first adult role playing a stable boy who has an erotic relationship with his horses. Radcliffe drew positive reviews from the critics and lots of attention from gossip columnists because of the much-written-about nude scene. Speaking of David and Fava, one onlooker remarked, ‘You can tell they get on well’. Not that it would last. A few months after they were spotted at the Gielgud, the relationship that promised so much, ended up as nothing more than another of David’s fleeting romances.