David Tennant and Catherine Tate may now be confirmed to be back for Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary next year, but there was a time when Tate’s return to the show was rumoured to be for the now aired season 13, subtitled Flux.
That was because rumours had flown around that Tate was supposedly spotted in Liverpool at the same time as the long-running sci-fi show was filming there, with a representative for Tate telling RadioTimes.com at the time: “I can confirm Catherine is very much not in Liverpool and is not on [the] DR WHO set.”
Now, it seems the mystery has finally been solved, as producer on the show Nikki Wilson has explained all to this month’s issue of Doctor Who Magazine.
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Wilson explained: “There were all these rumours that Catherine was back in the show – but it turned out it was just a picture of me on set.”
The magazine goes on to explain that the two have vaguely similar hair, accounting for the confusion.
It’s DWM 580! Available from branches of WH Smith and selected supermarkets from this Thursday, 21 July. Available to preorder online from https://t.co/M0TUeDw7E2 from later today (UK, Ireland and Gibraltar only). #DrWho #DoctorWho #Daleks #TARDIS pic.twitter.com/BsZNB0DVkI
— Doctor Who Magazine (@DWMtweets) July 18, 2022
Tate’s return as Donna Noble is still shrouded in mystery, with returning showrunner Russell T Davies teasing at the time of the announcement that “it looks impossible – first, we announce a new Doctor, and then an old Doctor, along with the wonderful Donna, what on earth is happening? Maybe this is a missing story. Or a parallel world. Or a dream, or a trick, or a flashback.”
He continued: “The only thing I can confirm is that it’s going to be spectacular, as two of our greatest stars reunite for the battle of a lifetime.”
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