David Tennant: rich, talented and famous.. but still likeable

REASONS to hate David Tennant? Loads. He's Doctor bloody Who, for starters. He's snogged Billie Piper.

He's rich and famous and jet-sets back and forth across the Atlantic the way us mere mortals go between home and work. And he can probably bed any girl he wants.

However, the most annoying thing about the 38-year-old from Ralston, Paisley, is this - it's practically impossible to dislike him.

He's cheerful and friendly, annoyingly modest and self-deprecating and laughs off the whole stardom thing like it's the most ridiculous idea he's ever heard.

He's massively, childishly enthusiastic about his work - especially when it comes to all things Tardis - and he even admits he gets starstruck when he meets famous people, chickening out of talking to them just like you or me.

The annoyingly likeable David said: "I still get that thing where I think, 'Oh,I'd love to say hello to him,' but then think, 'Oh, leave him alone.' I sawMorrissey once having a pizza in a restaurant in London.Meat-free, not aMeat Feast - that would have been a coup.

"I've not even ever been that big a Smiths fan - I've always liked them and I like his solo stuff - but there's something about Morrissey. He's a 'thing' isn't he? A creation. He just comes with aura.

"He was looking remarkably normal. He was just sitting there with a mate, laughing and joking.

"So I still do have that fan worship a little bit. You meet someone... but I stop myself now. I suppose when you've been on the other side of it a little bit, you kind of know what it is.

"The other day I was in Cardiff Bay - as Doctor Who is filmed in Cardiff - buying a coffee and there was the little fella fromManic Street Preachers. James Dean Bradfield.

"But I thought, 'Leave him alone. Let the man have his coffee.' But I couldn't remember his name. Which was probably the other reason I thought, 'Don't go up to him.'"

When it comes to his own fame, David seems to find the notion that people flock to see him - thousands were turned away from his appearance at Comic-Con in the States - utterly ludicrous.

The prospect of stardom going to his head is one he simply can't get his head around.

David said: "Well all that's just silly isn't it? I don't really know how to answer that.Maybe if I had been 21 when it all happened, maybe not. It's difficult to say. I was very well brought up, that's what it is."

He now faces the difficult task of following his dream job after quitting as the Time Lord in Russell T Davies's hit reimagining of Doctor Who.

While rumours swirl around linking him with just about every major film franchise in Hollywood and beyond - notably The Lord Of The Rings' prequel The Hobbit - he reckons it's all nonsense. In fact he's worried people will be disappointed when they find out he's up to.

David said: "We're slightly worried.We're doing a bit of expectation management because there are so many rumours. Whatever is bouncing round the web isn't true. We just need to manage expectation.

"There's a new rumour about me every day. I'm playing The Hobbit, apparently. No phone calls about that yet but I don't know, no idea.

"I don't think I'm in Harry Potter. There is a film at the moment - I'mplaying the villain in St Trinians 2 - but beyond that, who knows?

"We've done Hamlet. It's a TV version. It's a record of the stage play, so it's not a full-scale stage drama but it's the production that we did on stage last year and that'll certainly be on the BBC at Christmas."

With a Tardis-free future ahead and no notable roles to announce at the moment, many actors would wonder if they had done the right thing.

No such doubts for David - and despite his decision to quit after three seasons, his unmistakable love for the character shines through.

He said: "It's a Saturday night TV event. And it was when we were kids as well. I grew up obsessed with it really, so it's strange to be sitting here at 38 and be in it.

"It's still the same show, the story continues. I'm the same man asWilliam Hartnell, I'mjust wearing a different wig.

"There are bits of all those old Doctors in there somewhere, yet you make the role new and of yourself because that's how it works.

"It's not like James Bond or Sherlock Holmes or other characters reborn in the same mould.We want to break the mould a bit, make him a new man, which is why I went with a different wig than William."

David's input into the look of his Doctor didn't stop with the hair - he insisted on wearing his own shoes in his first episode as the wardrobe department wouldn't give him a pair he felt looked ruined enough.

He said: "The very first pair of shoes that I wore were my own shoes because I wanted them to be old and battered and hanging off my feet. And one thing that costume designers hate is things being really knackered.

"I really wanted them to be scruffy and knackered so I got my own shoes and said, 'I'mjust going to wear these.' The soles were flapping. "They were very old. But they really did fall apart,

"We sold them for Children In Need. So somebody's got an old pair of shoes rotting in the corner of their bedroom somewhere. Cherishing them. As they rot."

With Matt Smith stepping in to fill David's stinky shoes, it has hit home that he really has walked away from the Tardis for the last time.

But David is happy to have handed over the controls of the famous police box - and insists he was careful not to have any input whatsoever into the new boy's interpretation of the role.

He said: "We've met. I've chatted to him several times. He was down in Cardiff doing a recce.

"It's weird because I'mvery excited for him and at the same time I don't want to get in his way.

"We talked a bit and then he said, 'Well, what advice have you got?' and I said, 'I don't have any advice really.'

"He's a great actor - he's got no worries from that point of view - he knows what he's doing.

"He'll bring his own energy and enthusiasms with him, and that's how it should be really. And he doesn't need my advice - it's the same character but a different man every time.

"Doctor Who is a big thing and you get attention, some of which is nice and some that's intrusive. But he'll cope. He's bright, normal, and down to earth."

We haven't seen the last of David as the Doctor yet -he will be on screen in three more specials as well as popping up in spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures.

But the massively hyped talk that he could return for the 50th anniversary appear to be just that - hype. He is most insistent that there are no actual plans whatsoever in place.

David said: "Who knows what will happen? But, you know, 50th anniversary, 2013. We did talk about it ... so never say never but I have no plans.

"For now, I've just done an audiobook, which is due out soon. They might be the last words I utter as the Doctor.

"And I crop up in Sarah Jane. That was my last proper acting in the suit. It's a great show and I'm afraid I just greedily wanted a part, so I just demanded that I be included."

So for now, David will sit back, enjoy his vast array of rich-bloke pursuits like yachting and peasant-hunting, and relax.Well, no.

He said: "I don't have hobbies. I don't have 'pursuits'. I did play squash three times. I was quite good.

"I should get some pursuits. I've started cooking. I've got a Jamie Oliver book that I'm slowly working through. What he says you can rustle up in half an hour will take me three hours. But oh, it works. And you get great satisfaction.

"Tv, I love a good box-set. I've got TheWire ready to go - the first couple of episodes are quite tough but you have to persevere.

"And music, I'ma big Proclaimers fan. I make no secret of that." When David does decide to tell us what he will be up to next, don't expect to hear from him on Twitter - he thinks it's a colossal waste of time. Another good reason to like the man.

He said: "Twitter? Noooo. 'I'mhaving a cup of tea' Who cares? There's plenty of people pretending to be me on Twitter.

"They can tell you that they're having a cup of tea. It'll just be the same. It'll be a different cup of tea but the information's the same."