The Fourteenth Doctor’s TARDIS has one more stop before he returns to our screens.

By Lidia Molina-Whyte

Published: Thursday, 23 November 2023 at 10:35 AM


The Doctor is set to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Jodie Whittaker, Tom Hardy, Harry Styles and Kate Winslet with his own CBeebies Bedtime Story episode.

Doctor Who star David Tennant will be reprising the iconic sci-fi role this weekend in the first of Russell T Davies’s specials, ahead of the new season’s premiere with Ncuti Gatwa at the helm.

Before that, however, the rebranded Fourteenth Doctor will be reading The Way Back Home on CBeebies tomorrow (Friday 24th November).

Doctor Who star David Tennant reading a CBeebies Bedtime Story
Doctor Who star David Tennant reading a CBeebies Bedtime Story
Alistair Heap/BBC

The tale is certainly worthy of a space-trotting adventurer. It follows a boy who discovers an aeroplane in his closet and decides to fly it into space, where he’s bound to make some friends and go on a few otherworldly adventures before he returns home.

The Way Back Home is written by Oliver Jeffers, who has also penned bestselling children’s books Stuck, This Moose Belongs to Me, The Day the Crayons Quit and Lost and Found, which was turned into an animation that aired on Christmas Eve 2008 on Channel 4.

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It’s not the first time Tennant has read a Bedtime Story to the nation, as he previously narrated the stories How High Is the Sky?, Miki and The Christmas Bear.

We won’t have to wait long after he lulls us to sleep to see Tennant back on our screens, with The Star Beast landing this Saturday and featuring his character’s highly anticipated reunion with Catherine Tate’s Donna Noble.

He recently told Radio Times magazine how the unexpected return came about.

“The first conversation we had about it was very casual,” he said. “Russell and Catherine were talking about the notion of: ‘What if we got the band back together for one last special? But David would never do it.’ And I said, ‘What do you mean I’d never do it? I’d do it in a shot.’ And then suddenly, we were back for three in a row.”