What about your lovely companion Rose? Have you been in touch with Billie Piper yet?
David: Yes I have, we've met up a few times now. I didn't know her before, but obviously I've been admiring her in the show. She's just great. Fantastic. Just absolutely perfect. Spunky and quick and sexy... Just the ideal companion really. So I'm very very pleased that she's doing the whole series.
David and Billie step into the TARDIS and close the doors behind them. Standing outside in the rain, we can still hear their excited chatter.
David: "I can't believe this! I'm inside the TARDIS!"
Billie: "Sorry it's a wee bit cramped in here."
Then we hear a girlish giggle. It's David's.
Which gift from 'The 12 Days of Christmas' would you most like to receive this year?
David: "If the pipers piping were Billie Pipers, then obviously I'd go for that."
"Billie Piper? I can't bear the woman," he says with a grin. "It's becoming quite problematic, actually. We never film at the same time. We have to be edited together afterwards. We can't be in the same room." - David
Tennant is lyrical about his co-star and clearly enjoys the dynamic of the characters' relationship: 'She's just perfect,' he says, 'she was so welcoming and easy to work with, and I was nervous about that, because it's nine months and a lot of stuff to do together and that relationship has really got to work, just from a getting-through-the-day point of view, never mind the acting side. I really think she is a brilliant actress, too: in every take she's got something new, she makes it look effortless.'
The chemistry between them is just as strong on screen as off. In between takes, he and Billie natter away like the best of friends, taking in more random topics than there are bumps on a Dalek. And then they go for a take, and Billie trips over one of her lines... "Ooh dear," teases David, "might they have to take back your award?" "No!" she cries. "That's not going anywhere!"
Billie: (about guest stars) "..and then they leave, which is sad. But then David and me kind of go 'Hey it's okay, cos we've still got each other." I mean, I really love it when it's just me and David - it's nice and contained and easy. If we want to be silent in between takes, we can be, and we don't worry about the other person thinking we're a bit boring. We're kind of like a married couple in that way, I suppose. And that happened very quickly: I think it's because we're quite likeminded, me and David."
Billie: "..But David dances with it more. He's a bit more like a - I don't know - a baby deer. He's my little Bambi!
Billie: "Do we have nicknames for each other? Yeah… this is going to start so much havoc. I recently named him David Ten-inch." She added: "I have no basis or grounds for calling him that. I just find it funny." David, the tenth actor to play the Doctor, calls Billie "Carlos Carlos". She explained: "We think Carlos is such a funny name, so I like to use it twice. And we choose names for each other’s trailers. At the moment Desmond Tutu is on mine and I put Lavinia on his."
Billie revealed she took THREE takes to perfect her kiss with co-star David Tennant, 34, for the BBC's next (Doctor Who) series.
She said: "Screen kisses? I love them. Especially when with David (Tennant)."
Billie tells him: "You're more emotional. I like the way you play that stuff - you're good on your feet. You have good hips!"
David laughs: "That's something else entirely!"
..she giggles at a shot of Tennant standing with thighs manfully thrust apart: "Check it out!" she purrs, "Sexual!"
Time for another take. When it's finished, Billie and David spontaneously burst into a comedy hoofing - half tapdancing, half dad-dancing. [...] There's no doubt that these two get on like a house on fire.
Billie Piper is less backward about coming forward on Tennant's charms. "He is HUGE with women and the gay scene," she says. "I get endless calls from girlfriends. You know, I'm meeting David in Camden and suddenly they'll just show up. 'Oh, fancy bumping into you...'"
The two are firm pals, Tennant calling her 'Bill' and her saucily nicknaming him 'David Ten-inch'. Of a weekend, he can sometimes be found escorting actress partner Sophia Myles round Billie's house for dinner.
Billie claims they all get drunk and salsa round her lounge. Who's best at drinking? "Well, Billie LIKES a drink, but neither of us are exactly big swiggers," says Tennant. She says she has to be picked up off the pavement outside Camden pubs. "She can say that about herself! I'm not going to! I'm remaining squeaky clean..."
Chris Evans: So last night, the Doctor, that is you, and Rose, that is Billie Piper, went out for a proper grown up meal!
David: We did!
Chris: Why didn't you call?
David: Ah, she had hold of the mobile phone..
Chris: Did you want her for your own?
David: I always want her for my own! How could one not?
...
Chris: So you're getting on very well with my ex wife..
David: I, I love her dearly.
...
Chris: and did you drop her off last night? Or did she..
David: she dropped me off, actually.
Chris: did she.
David: yeeaahh!
Chris: well I'm very glad for you both...
...She's also steeling herself for the first appearance on screen next year of Freema Agyeman, Doctor Who's new assistant and Rose's successor alongside Time Lord David Tennant. "David and I didn't just get on because we were thrown together - we were proper mates," she says. "Neither of us can remember what it was we found so funny, but we giggled for a straight nine months."
"It was like coming back to school and your best friend's not there anymore, your best friend moved to Manchester or something... Not that she moved to Manchester, but you know what I mean! And, although... I'm still in touch with Billie and I see her all the time, so I don't miss her too much in that form." - David about Billie's departure.
"Did you have a crush on David Tennant when you made Doctor Who?"
Billie: "Of course! What woman doesn't? Mind you I heard he went for dinner with Kylie recently, so I've blown my chances. Actually I should clarify this. They went out because they're working together and I'm very settled with my boyfreind thank you very much!" "Are you still in touch with David, and whats he like in real life?"
"I'm in touch with him, but not nearly as much as I'd like to be because we're both so busy. He's lovely, one of my best friends. He's kind, sensitive and has a wonderful sense of humour." "Who's been you fave on screen kiss?"
"David Tennant. It's so unfair to pick one guy because people like James Nesbitt who I kissed in the Canterbury Tales, are great kissers too. But I'll choose David, which should please him."
[On returning to Doctor Who] I don't think it will happen any time soon but the door is slightly ajar," Billie told Parkinson. "It's such a lovely part but I tried to do it the other day and I couldn't do it - I can't do Rose any more!"
She continued: "I was having a go the other day, I saw David [Tennant] the other day in fact, and we were just having a laugh - and yes, Rose wasn't so good!"
Q: Who inspires you?
David: [...] Billie Piper has an ability to be completely relaxed and emotionally very open so it seems like she's not working at all and that's very inspiring. [...]
Q: "Was it fun being snogged by Billie Piper?"
David: "It's always fun being snogged by Billie Piper. How could it fail to be? I used to be in a select club - but now she's done Secret Diary of a Call Girl, I think every member of Equity has had a go!"
David on Top Gear: "Listen. Billie's very charming. I've been on the receiving end of her eyelid-fluttering. It butters many parsnips. I just... I know that she's gonna beat me now and I'm never gonna hear the end of it!"
Billie: ‘I see him quite a lot, we are really good mates. I like everything about him, which makes it really easy to be in his company. He’s a sweet, sweet guy. I call him to ask him all my acting questions and he always supports what I do.’
David: "I properly love Billie, she's a great friend, and a fantastic actress. She's got that magical thing that you can't quite bottle, and before I was on the show she was a huge reason of why it worked."
Billie: "He is just the most straight-down-the-line bloke you could wish to meet. He's your best friend, your brother and your boyfriend rolled into one."
Billie on Jo Whiley: "Then I'd marry David, and snog Noel." "Why?" "Uhmm. I couldn't marry Noel, but David is quite compatible. You know... it's easy." "You'd live together ok." "Yeah, we get on well." "Which assets does he have then that would make him a good husband?" "He's patient... He's verrrry funny, he's... Uhmm what else is he..." "How'd he be around the house, would he do hoovering, would he do dusting?" "He's very clean, I've seen his flat. But it's not freakishly clean that it's unnerving, it's like.. He keeps it nice. And we have similar interests, you know..." "So you could live side by side - he's got good music taste as well." "He - Really..?! I've never been a huge fan of his music taste.. And you've had him on, haven't you? I.. No, he buys me his CDs, you know the ones that he likes, and I've always been... It raises an eyebrow. I go with it, and then I don't."
"Please ask Billie what it's like to kiss David Tennant. Like a wet fish?" "Yeah I always... No! He's quite a good kisser I think! You know the thing is, I'm always quite full on when I kiss him as Rose, cause she has this, you know, desperate love for him. So uhm I'm more thinking about what I'm doing... And less about what he's doing *laughs*" "Has there ever been a tongue slip?" "Never. Never with the tongue...." "Does that disappoint you?" "Definitely. *laughs* No.. no, there's still time!"
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