What was it like working with Billie Piper again, who returns as Rose Tyler?
“It’s always lovely working with Billie. She’s one of the best actresses around and one of the loveliest human beings, so I was very happy to be in her orbit. It wasn’t strange acting with her again, it’s easy how you slip back into these things. And I suppose it’s not been a massive amount of time. If we’re all brought back in another 20 years it might be a bit different – and we’d be spending even longer in make up! Us being the Doctor and Rose is still within relatively recent memory so it’s not been too difficult to dredge up, although it’s hard to tell objectively whether things are the same or not.”
How do you react to the return of Rose Tyler?
MS: Obviously I can’t tell you a thing, can I! But Rose Tyler is around. I’m great friends with Billie so it’s lovely to have her here. We said let’s just make five a year each! Get a big gang, the workload will be 50% less…
DT: There won’t be as many lines to learn!
MS: But obviously I don’t want to give too much away about narrative, and reactions to people. We should save that for the day.
Did she know she was going to be back when she went on the Graham Norton Show and said she wasn’t?
MS: No, she didn’t. Definitely. Because I didn’t even know that they were going to ask her.
DT: Billie and I have both been accused of being lying. I think I lied once, quite recently, but basically it has all come together recently.
MS: And also, we would tell you, but if we did tell you, you would never see us again, that would be it. We would be cooped up, locked up somewhere!