I Was Always Pretending To Be Other People

The final series of Broadchurch is about to begin, so we spoke to David Tennant about friendship, fame and secrets

- Gerry Gilbert

We’re sitting in the windowless room of a swanky new London hotel, David Tennant looking relaxed in an open shirt and jacket, his cheeks covered in the same beard that his Broad church character sports. He’s talking about how he has become great friends with Olivia Colman during the course of shooting ITV’s hit who dunnit. He calls her by her nickname ‘Collie’,while she says of David: ‘We giggle and like spending time together. If we could stand next to each other on set every day I’d be so happy!’

So, that’s one thing we know for sure about the third and final series set in this close-knit coastal community – DI Alec Hardy and DS Ellie Miller won’t suddenly be holding hands and gazing into each other’s eyes.

‘No, no, that’s not their bag,’ says David in his clipped Scottish accent. ‘If the script had told that story, and told it believably, then we would have played it. But I think we would have found it quite silly. Olivia feels like a sort of sister. One of the weird things about acting is that you can end up suddenly pretending you’re in love and kissing someone you’ve known for a long time. Olivia and I wouldn’t be able to keep a straight face!’‘Broadchurch scripts were given fake titles’