Londoner's Diary
Among the famous faces packing out Claridge’s for the Evening Standard Theatre Awards last night was a sparkily-dressed David Tennant, left, who has just reprised his role as the Doctor to mark the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who.
His return kicked off with a Children In Need special on Friday. He told us: “I watched it with my eight-year-old, who didn’t really know what was coming and didn’t really understand what she was watching!” He last reprised the role in 2013, before his daughter was born. “She was a bit bewildered that I was on the telly with big hair,” he said. “I think she was quite excited by it. It was nice. It was very good.”
Of his successor in the role, Ncuti Gatwa, Tennant said: “He’s going to be great. I always tune in whether I’m in it or not. I think Ncuti is going to be particularly fine.” Tennant is due to play Macbeth at the Donmar Warehouse from December, opposite Cush Jumbo as Lady Macbeth. How does it feel to be back in the West End? “It’s thrilling,” he said. “The history of London theatre stretches back hundreds of years and it’s still the most important place on earth for the theatre. “It’s exciting and I think there’s the potential for it to be a really great show.”
Boy George's jungle tips
At the Theatre Awards pre-dinner drinks, we ran into singer and sometime theatre impresario Boy George, who this time last year was flying to the Australian outback for I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! In the jungle, George clashed with former health secretary Matt Hancock. How would he handle this year’s most controversial contestant, Nigel Farage? “There’s no chance we’d ever agree politically at all but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other areas,” he told us. “You don’t know the person until you’re in a room with them. You start out with your narrative which often is the same as my narrative. People think they know who I am. I think if you’re intelligent you have to go: right, let’s see who this person is. I’d probably ask him: Nigel Farage, what do you do for fun? What makes you laugh? Because I’m finding more and more that I’m surrounding myself with people who make me laugh out loud!”
Labour MP on anti-Muslim bigotry
Labour MP Zarah Sultana broke down in tears over anti-Muslim bigotry in a podcast this weekend. Sultana, 30, recounted abuse she has received as a Muslim MP in a Novara Media interview. She also criticised the Labour leadership, claiming it takes Muslim voters for granted. One straw poll of British Muslims in October showed support for Labour dropping significantly.
