Review: ‘David Tennant Does A Podcast With…’

Beloved Scottish actor David Tennant has conquered television, movies, and theatre, and with his new podcast David Tennant Does A Podcast With… he has finally made the leap into the world of podcasting. The appeal of this series is in its intimacy and straightforwardness – each week, Tennant sits down with a different celebrity guest and simply chats with them.

There are no formalities or forced structure to these conversations. In fact, they could barely even be called interviews. Instead the chatter flows freely between David and his guest, often dipping into their personal lives and their career struggles, like old friends catching up. In every single episode, Tennant goes to the effort of meeting with his guest face to face, whether it is in a recording studio or at their home. There are no stale phone calls here – Tennant draws out the openness and warmth that one could only get from direct conversation.

Tennant’s guests so far have ranged from actors, to TV personalities, to politicians. In an early episode he bonds with Jodie Whittaker over their shared experience in playing the title role in Doctor Who, while in another he strips back the layers of former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and digs into the pressures of working as a public servant. But arguably his most illuminating discussion yet has come from his episode with Sir Ian McKellen, in which McKellen reveals his experiences of hiding his sexuality while rising up in the entertainment industry. The fears he had in making this leap, along with the affirmation he received from other young gay men, led to a turbulent and sometimes scary process of self-discovery for him. As such, McKellen’s episode reveals a more vulnerable side to an esteemed actor in a way that has rarely been captured in other media.

Although the podcast has Tennant’s name in the title, he is really only there as a catalyst for his guests to open up. His speaking in each episode probably only adds up to about a tenth of its entire running time, as he prefers to let his guests talk at length and lead themselves on a stream of consciousness. He interjects with questions at the right times, asking only what we were wondering ourselves, but he never hogs the spotlight or attempts to relate his own experiences with his guest’s.

The conversations in David Tennant Does A Podcast With… generally stay light and funny, making it a great podcast to switch your brain off and relax to. Although it never becomes the focus, Tennant’s natural charm drives the discussions and elicits some incredibly thoughtful responses from his guests. The podcast is still quite young however, and even if its structure gradually changes over the time as most podcasts ten to do, it will be interesting to see just how long and diverse Tennant’s celebrity contact list is.

Find David Tennant Does A Podcast With… on Twitter, Spotify, and iTunes.

Do you listen to the podcast? Tell us in the comments below!