Sarah says, ‘until we meet again.’
‘Don’t forget me, Sarah Jane,’ David’s Doctor replies.
Loads of people wrote to congratulate me on that – ‘Oh, Lis, that was a stroke of genius!’ – and I didn’t have a clue what they were talking about.
And then the penny dropped. It was a beautiful homage to my original farewell from
Still, at least I wasn’t hiding a broken leg this time.
* * *
I’m pretty sure my days on
Maybe one of the kids will take over, like on
While I knew David was coming over to us in spring 2008, I had no idea that I would be appearing in his show, too.
It would be easier to get an invite to the Royal Wedding than squeeze any information out of the
We filmed it outside Sarah Jane’s Bannerman Road address, so nothing out of the ordinary as far as other people were concerned. Except, of course, David had just saved Tommy from a speeding car.
Nobody told me anything. Some things don’t need to be spelt out, though. The script just read: ‘You come out, you see him and you’re upset and you cry.’
And so I didn’t ask any questions – I took it that Sarah Jane would know that the Doctor was regenerating. But really, they might have given me a few pointers. That annoyed me, actually, not having any context. So I did it in three different ways and just hoped one of them would fit.
For me, David’s real goodbye was equally disappointing. They had a no-expenses-spared party for him and emotions ran high. Russell told this brilliant story about trying to write his speech. He’d gone to a park in Cardiff, completely deserted, and sat down on one of the many benches. Then he watched a tramp enter and he just thought,
Sure enough, he did.
The tramp said, ‘What do you do?’
‘I work on
The tramp turned to study his face.
‘Are you David Tennant?’
Bernard Cribbins and Timothy Dalton were at the party as well, obviously, and as Timothy left the stage, Julie said, ‘My God, we’ve got Doctor Who and James Bond!’
Russell said, ‘Ooh, is he James Bond as well?’
Everyone laughed but I heard Timothy’s smile was a little forced, if you know what I mean …
David’s father gave the best speech, revealing how the young David used to play in the garden dressed up in his mother’s hat and scarf pretending to be Tom Baker! That brought the house down but it made me feel my age, I can tell you.
Afterwards I found David standing by a wall, a bit overwhelmed by it all. ‘Weren’t the speeches lovely?’ I said.
‘I was having a great time until my father let the cat out of the bag!’ he laughed.
In hindsight, this was the perfect moment to say goodbye properly. I’d thought long and hard about the perfect gift for him and had wrapped up the old TARDIS key that George had given me when I left. Knowing David was such a fan I thought it would mean something to him and because the TARDIS is now opened by a simple Yale, I wrote, ‘In case the buggers ever change the locks.’
I was pretty pleased with it, I have to say, especially after David’s dad’s revelations but when I came to hand it over, David had gone. The night was young but I think the emotions had caught up with him and he’d slunk away without fanfare. I sent the gift to his assistant and I hope he got it: he deserved it.
* * *
It wasn’t just goodbye to David, though. The whole team was handing over the reins and Russell and Julie