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Catherine Tate on Doctor Who Difference: "Enormous" Balls & Sticks Now

Catherine Tate shared one of the biggest differences between filming Doctor Who with David Tennant now as compared to the early 2000s.

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Even with about five months to go before BBC, Disney+ & showrunner Russell T. Davies's three-episode Doctor Who 60th-anniversary event arrives, it's never too early to hear from David Tennant (Fourteenth Doctor) & Catherine Tate (Donna Noble) when it comes to… well, pretty much anything. Speaking with the Daily Star newspaper, Tate was kind enough to tackle some questions regarding her return to the long-running sci-fi series. and we learned quite a few things, including how she didn't know Doctor Who had a huge U.S. following ("They're enormous fun. I didn't realise it had a big audience in America. Compared to the Marvel films franchise, though, it's pretty niche") and that she's not nearly on the same level as a certain co-star when it comes to being a serious fan of the show ("I must make a full declaration – I don't know anything about 'Doctor Who.' I love it, and I love being in it, but I'm not the fan that David Tennant is." With 17 years having passed since her debut in 2006's Christmas Special "The Runaway Bride," Tate also shared one important difference between the two time periods as it relates to filming the effects-heavy show.

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Image: BBC

"We worked in a green studio, and it has come up a pace from when David and I had been on it before, I can tell you that. The budget and the scale, and the studio have all increased. Genuinely, it used to be a tennis ball on a stick. And the director would say, 'That's a monster,'" Tate shared. "Now the tennis balls and sticks are much bigger – they're absolutely enormous now." Joining Tennant and Tate are Neil Patrick Harris in a big bad role (possibly The Toymaker/The Celestial Toymaker?) & Yasmin Finney as the interestingly-named Rose (Hmmm…). In addition, Jacqueline King & Karl Collins are returning as Sylvia Noble & Shaun Temple, respectively, Ruth Madeley is set to appear as Shirley Anne Bingham, and Bernard Cribbins is set to posthumously appear, reprising his role as Wilfred Mott. In addition, fans of the comics can expect to see Beep the Meep and the Wrarth Warriors play a major part, and – as if all of that wasn't enough – Ncuti Gatwa is expected to debut as the Fifteenth Doctor. With all three episodes written by Davies, we learned the episode titles during this weekend's Eurovision 2023 broadcast: Special One: "The Star Beast" (directed by Rachel Talalay), Special Two: "Wild Blue Yonder" (directed by Tom Kingsley), and Special Three': "The Giggle" (directed by Chanya Button).

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Ray FlookAbout Ray Flook

Serving as Television Editor since 2018, Ray began five years earlier as a contributing writer/photographer before being brought onto the core BC team in 2017.
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