The Optimistic Authour

After I won that BAFTA award for the old-age make-up on Paul Whitehouse in Help!, Russell asked if we could do an old-age effect on David Tennant. I said yes: he’s got good features and a narrow face. I didn’t think anything more of it, then this series we’ve done two old-ages on David, plus another one on Mark Gatiss! I’m a bit worried about him seeing anything else we’ve done…

The 70-year-old Family of Blood David wasn’t that much of a big deal. It was just one scene. But this one was more extreme old-age. The hardest thing to do is subtle old-age, as in Mark Gatiss’ make-up, which had to convince you he was really that age, until he went into the machine. It’s hard, actually, to know how far to go with extreme make-up. Phil [Collinson, producer] and Russell said that, for this one, he’d gone to the human equivalent of 120 years or something. So it was lots of wrinkles and really over-the-top make-up - a complete, full-head, complete with wispy hair. Each day, it took about two-and-a-half hours to put it on, then 35 minutes to remove at the end. It was David’s first big prosthetic, but he was terrific about it. Apart from being such a nice bloke, he loves the process. He looked in the mirror, played with it and realized he could still express with it. He also ate his lunch carefully, so as not to damage it!

I initially thought I might use contact lenses to create a whitening around the outer part of the iris, but then shied away. I had a brief chat with David about it, curing Comic Relief, and he was up for wearing them. But then I was concerned: it’s such an extreme make-up that you still had to know it was still the Doctor in there. When it came to the shoot I was so glad we didn’t use lenses, because so much of it ended up being big close-ups on the eyes, so I was grateful they were still very much David’s!

David Tennant:  Of course I knew that in the script the Doctor levitated, but nobody told me we were going to do it for real.  I assumed it was all going to be computer generated until I arrived that morning and there’s this wire harness hanging down, and somebody comes into my trailer with one of those bloomin’ things that they strap you into that makes your back hurt for the next week. Colin Teague:  I do remember him saying… he was like, “Oh, I’m going up there?”  That must have just slipped through.  Fortunately you’ve got someone who is so into it and is so cool, he’s like, “It’s fine, it’s alright.  I’m not afraid of heights… much.” David Tennant:  So yeah, a bit of wire work.  A bit of hanging in the air.  A bit of being pulled across.  It was… not the most comfortable morning I’ve ever spent in my life.