Catherine Tate seems to have enjoyed filming her return to Doctor Who for this year’s 60th anniversary special episodes, but has confirmed that the programme isn’t exactly her specialist subject:.

The actress, who plays Donna Noble, said:

“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 David Tennant is.”

There’s nothing wrong in that, of course – it’s not an actor’s job to know their Krotons from their Kamelion, and Tate has touched on this in other interviews.

Tate also says the show’s profile in the USA was a surprise to her:

“I didn’t realise it had a big audience in America. Compared to the Marvel films though, it’s pretty niche.”

Intriguingly, she also teases that viewers can expect significant advances since her original run in the series in the show’s special effects:

“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.’ Now the tennis balls and sticks are much bigger – they’re absolutely enormous now.”

Catherine Tate will return as Donna Noble alongside David Tennant in three special episodes of Doctor Who, expected to air in November 2023.