David Tennant recalls holding a real skull 💀 | David Tennant Remembers... Hamlet - BBC

“It felt very vibrant and alive."
David Tennant recalls how it felt to play Hamlet and hold aloft a real skull 💀
#DavidTennantRemembersHamlet #iPlayer #BBCShakespeare #BBCArts
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David Tennant looks back on the role he time-travelled into after leaving the Tardis, playing Hamlet in Greg Doran’s award-winning 2008 production for the Royal Shakespeare Company. David’s portrayal was described at the time as ‘athletic, and immensely engaging’, full of ‘vigour and wild humour’ and ‘the best great Dane in years’.
Here, he talks about his approach to the part, performing opposite Patrick Stewart, who played the role of Claudius, and the reaction he got when the production became a hit with BBC audiences when it was screened on Boxing Day 2009.
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[@TinaNewtonwrites]

He really evinces the emotion of contemplating mortality. And good acting is like a virus: the emotion is catching.

[@onslowdoggie]

David Tennant's interpretation here marks the first time I've actually *felt* Hamlet's emotions in this passage, and I'm sure this is what Shakespeare's intended. (Yes, I'm speaking for Shakespeare! 😉 )
David Tennant is brilliant. His performance in every role I've seen is subtle and realistic, and yet *always* remarkable.

[@izziemoss8262]

I’ve excavated quite a few skeletons and yes. It’s a very strange thing, but so interesting.

[@williamcrowe2576]

"Here once hung those lips I have kissed I don't know how often".

[@gk6732]

I was at a Japanese relative funeral, where they bring you the burnt bones to pick and put into a vase. he was family to me by marriage so when they offered that I too take part of his bones to put in the vase, I said no politely, because I felt the weight of it. I had no right to be one of the few who got to give him a final touch, having met him so late in life, and being extended family. but his skull and bones to see so closely, just a day after the wake, of seeing the body... were quite a sight... very humbling. I have buried loved ones and put the ground above their head in Slavic burials, but I feel like to see the bones is a whole different thing, and to touch them, even indirectly with chopsticks, is still too intimate, for a non blood relation.

[@Cleanplanetuk]

What is this called thanks

[@luv2skat]

It's David Tennent's version of Hamlet. So well done!!

[@KateeAngel]

I don't know, when I studied at uni and held real bones, the only thing I thought about is how to memorise all their names and pass the test 😂

[@6Haunted-Days]

If that’s ALL you thought……Guess you’re just a shallow hollow person huh? 🙄🤷🏼‍♀️

[@Dizzylizsy]

How come they didn't use a fake skull?

[@dasreicht]

Because they had a real one

[@annaolson4828]

An actor willed his skull to the Royal Shakespeare Company to specifically use as Yorick.

[@Robin-og9db]

It was actually the skull of composer André Tchaikowsky. When he died he donated his body to science and his skull to the Royal Shakespeare Company specifically asking for it to be used as a prop on stage, ideally as Yorick in Hamlet. David Tennant was the first actor actually willing to use it! So by using the real skull they’re actually honoring André Tchaikowsky’s wishes and his memory.

[@SuperAaron360]

@@Robin-og9db that is metal af

[@50DoctorPodcast]

First!! 🎉