Thank you! Wonderful story about your interaction with David in 2017 - I really hope you get the opportunity to tell him you worked it all out. Also, your theory about the photo makes a lot of sense! Just goes to show one cannot take the photo that accompanies an article at face value.
That's so true - pictures don't always tell the (correct) story. So while it may not have been a play David was in, it did end up being a wonderful chase. Now I just have to hope I get the chance to ask him about it again!
Thanks for this! It's clear 1992 was a banner year for Mr. Binnie, and he was quite busy doing multiple plays and trying to balance family and work. Following on from that, I also just googled him, and I wonder....should I write him and ask about MacW? I wonder what he'd say after all these years.....
The effort you put into everything is amazing! I love how you tackled this mystery, and your solution makes perfect sense! Also, it’s great that you provided David with one of the surprising moments of which he spoke. I love reading your posts!
Thank you! Yes, I must admit I was quite thrilled he'd been so genuinely excited about the mystery I'd presented him with. I feel fairly confident my solution is right...it's now down to whether I ever meet him again long enough to ask!
This is a fantastic story all in all! Thank you for sharing! And I agree on the probability of how the photo came to be. Well, festivals are something of a thing to themselves. And as press photos are still such a staple in fandom, they outlive their origins.
Patricia, I don’t know if you’ve watched Secret Smile, but I have been thinking that it needs a sequel. DT’s character gets out of prison and what things could ensue from there…
Yep, I've seen 'Secret Smile', and it would indeed make an interesting sequel ('Takin' Over The Asylum' would have, too, but sadly - after a period in 2017 where it got so far as the writing of scripts - the idea was shelved in 2021).
And as far as David's work goes, I can pretty much guarantee that if it's David, I've almost certainly seen it. I've seen almost everything he's done that's available - and quite a few things which aren't!
until you have an opportunity to confirm your theory (which does admittedly sound like the Occam's Razor option) I am choosing to believe David was just so charming the cast members of MacWizard Fae Oz wanted to hang out with him and wouldn't let him go even while getting an official(ish) cast photo taken xD
(I created a Substack account for the sole purpose of commenting this)
Hey - two things can be true at the same time! He wasn't a cast member, but the real cast members thought to themselves they couldn't have a lovelier "replacement" if they tried, so.....
And thanks so much for subscribing, too! I hope you get all the David content you're looking for. I'm currently writing a series of posts on David's 1989 play 'The Ghost Of Benjy O'Neil', and I hope to get it going here in the next month or so (it would be sooner, but my dad died in January, and I'm driving back to my home state on Wednesday morning to help my elderly mom pack up the house for a sale, pack her things, and bring her back cross country to live with me.) But I adore 'Benjy', and it absolutely NEEDS to be told - it's amazing!
oh, I'm sorry for your loss. And as for Benjy, I've read what you previously wrote about the play as a guest before making the account and I'm very excited to learn more, about Benjy in particular and David's work in general. For some reason while I'm perfectly capable of casually enjoying the works of most types of artists, with actors I either don't care at all or I become obsessed with hunting down every single movie, TV show, TV show appearance and recorded play I can get my hands on. And then also round all that out with trivia and interviews. I only consider myself a fan of two actors including DT and he is the more recent one. While working on a personal use spreadsheet of David's projects, I quickly noticed that you know more about the subject than Wikipedia and imdb combined (my otherwise main sources). I am very grateful for the research you do and your generosity in sharing it 💜
I am the same way re: either obsessive or uncaring LOL!
I like to think I know more about his career than either Wikipedia or IMDb when it comes to his earlier works. With regard to his later works (after DW or thereabouts) they're likely more accurate than I am. I've been hyper-focused on his early career (c1980s-c2003 or so) and have been for years now, so that's where I think my scope of knowledge sits.
I've gone through many iterations of 'A Tennantcy To Act' over time. First I thought it could be a book, and then a podcast, and now finally here I am at Substack! I have done one podcast episode about a radio play he did in drama school, and I think I'd like to do more later on...it was fun. But one thing I know is this: I think David's career is important, and people need to know about it. And it's my honor to make that happen.
I definitely also feel that David's body of work is important and even though I don't have anything to contribute in the department of finding out obscure information, I do enjoy at the very least getting to be a small part of making sure that even the less popular of his works won't be forgotten or easily lost to the passage of time by making myself familiar with it, sharing my enthusiasm with other fans and downloading my favourites of the things available on the Internet. I also plan to get some things on DVD, just as an extra safety measure lol
I've got quite a bit of things on DVD, but only because an old school fan gifted me her collection. My digital collection, though? It's currently sitting around 700G, so...yeah. LOL!
Excellent article that you have written of your experience talking with David regarding your intrepid research journey! Maybe you have written about this before, but when did you first become aware of David Tennant? I had not heard of him until he was the 10th Doctor, which, after watching those enthralling episodes, made me become an instant fan. That is so serendipitous that you were able to sort through ephemera at the theater company while you were studying in (freakin) SCOTLAND!!! ❤️ your posts.
I became aware of David in late 2012, when my son introduced me to 'Doctor Who'. Like you, I became an instant fan, and as I began to work my way through the rest of his catalogue of work, my appreciation of his talent grew and grew. Then two almost-simultaneous events occurred: I saw him live in 'Richard II' in late 2013 (he was such a stupendous live talent) and I chanced upon the wonderful, now-defunct website called "The David Tennant Theatre Archive: The Play's The Thing". That website, which featured what little was known about his early theatre career as well as his later productions, helped cement my abiding interest in his theatre work, especially his earlier years. And I've chased it ever since.
Thank you! Wonderful story about your interaction with David in 2017 - I really hope you get the opportunity to tell him you worked it all out. Also, your theory about the photo makes a lot of sense! Just goes to show one cannot take the photo that accompanies an article at face value.
That's so true - pictures don't always tell the (correct) story. So while it may not have been a play David was in, it did end up being a wonderful chase. Now I just have to hope I get the chance to ask him about it again!
This story got me curious about John Binnie; when I googled him, I ran across this article in which he mentions performing MacW: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/steps-back-in-time-john-binnie-gives-sarah-hemming-a-guided-tour-of-the-locations-that-inspired-a-little-older-the-winner-of-the-1992-independent-theatre-award-for-best-new-play-1558712.html
Thanks for this! It's clear 1992 was a banner year for Mr. Binnie, and he was quite busy doing multiple plays and trying to balance family and work. Following on from that, I also just googled him, and I wonder....should I write him and ask about MacW? I wonder what he'd say after all these years.....
The effort you put into everything is amazing! I love how you tackled this mystery, and your solution makes perfect sense! Also, it’s great that you provided David with one of the surprising moments of which he spoke. I love reading your posts!
Thank you! Yes, I must admit I was quite thrilled he'd been so genuinely excited about the mystery I'd presented him with. I feel fairly confident my solution is right...it's now down to whether I ever meet him again long enough to ask!
This is a fantastic story all in all! Thank you for sharing! And I agree on the probability of how the photo came to be. Well, festivals are something of a thing to themselves. And as press photos are still such a staple in fandom, they outlive their origins.
I'm glad you enjoyed it! I hope I'll be able to someday discover the truth behind the photo for sure. :D
Patricia, I don’t know if you’ve watched Secret Smile, but I have been thinking that it needs a sequel. DT’s character gets out of prison and what things could ensue from there…
Yep, I've seen 'Secret Smile', and it would indeed make an interesting sequel ('Takin' Over The Asylum' would have, too, but sadly - after a period in 2017 where it got so far as the writing of scripts - the idea was shelved in 2021).
And as far as David's work goes, I can pretty much guarantee that if it's David, I've almost certainly seen it. I've seen almost everything he's done that's available - and quite a few things which aren't!
until you have an opportunity to confirm your theory (which does admittedly sound like the Occam's Razor option) I am choosing to believe David was just so charming the cast members of MacWizard Fae Oz wanted to hang out with him and wouldn't let him go even while getting an official(ish) cast photo taken xD
(I created a Substack account for the sole purpose of commenting this)
Hey - two things can be true at the same time! He wasn't a cast member, but the real cast members thought to themselves they couldn't have a lovelier "replacement" if they tried, so.....
And thanks so much for subscribing, too! I hope you get all the David content you're looking for. I'm currently writing a series of posts on David's 1989 play 'The Ghost Of Benjy O'Neil', and I hope to get it going here in the next month or so (it would be sooner, but my dad died in January, and I'm driving back to my home state on Wednesday morning to help my elderly mom pack up the house for a sale, pack her things, and bring her back cross country to live with me.) But I adore 'Benjy', and it absolutely NEEDS to be told - it's amazing!
oh, I'm sorry for your loss. And as for Benjy, I've read what you previously wrote about the play as a guest before making the account and I'm very excited to learn more, about Benjy in particular and David's work in general. For some reason while I'm perfectly capable of casually enjoying the works of most types of artists, with actors I either don't care at all or I become obsessed with hunting down every single movie, TV show, TV show appearance and recorded play I can get my hands on. And then also round all that out with trivia and interviews. I only consider myself a fan of two actors including DT and he is the more recent one. While working on a personal use spreadsheet of David's projects, I quickly noticed that you know more about the subject than Wikipedia and imdb combined (my otherwise main sources). I am very grateful for the research you do and your generosity in sharing it 💜
I am the same way re: either obsessive or uncaring LOL!
I like to think I know more about his career than either Wikipedia or IMDb when it comes to his earlier works. With regard to his later works (after DW or thereabouts) they're likely more accurate than I am. I've been hyper-focused on his early career (c1980s-c2003 or so) and have been for years now, so that's where I think my scope of knowledge sits.
I've gone through many iterations of 'A Tennantcy To Act' over time. First I thought it could be a book, and then a podcast, and now finally here I am at Substack! I have done one podcast episode about a radio play he did in drama school, and I think I'd like to do more later on...it was fun. But one thing I know is this: I think David's career is important, and people need to know about it. And it's my honor to make that happen.
I definitely also feel that David's body of work is important and even though I don't have anything to contribute in the department of finding out obscure information, I do enjoy at the very least getting to be a small part of making sure that even the less popular of his works won't be forgotten or easily lost to the passage of time by making myself familiar with it, sharing my enthusiasm with other fans and downloading my favourites of the things available on the Internet. I also plan to get some things on DVD, just as an extra safety measure lol
I've got quite a bit of things on DVD, but only because an old school fan gifted me her collection. My digital collection, though? It's currently sitting around 700G, so...yeah. LOL!
Excellent article that you have written of your experience talking with David regarding your intrepid research journey! Maybe you have written about this before, but when did you first become aware of David Tennant? I had not heard of him until he was the 10th Doctor, which, after watching those enthralling episodes, made me become an instant fan. That is so serendipitous that you were able to sort through ephemera at the theater company while you were studying in (freakin) SCOTLAND!!! ❤️ your posts.
I became aware of David in late 2012, when my son introduced me to 'Doctor Who'. Like you, I became an instant fan, and as I began to work my way through the rest of his catalogue of work, my appreciation of his talent grew and grew. Then two almost-simultaneous events occurred: I saw him live in 'Richard II' in late 2013 (he was such a stupendous live talent) and I chanced upon the wonderful, now-defunct website called "The David Tennant Theatre Archive: The Play's The Thing". That website, which featured what little was known about his early theatre career as well as his later productions, helped cement my abiding interest in his theatre work, especially his earlier years. And I've chased it ever since.