Tennant and Tate win over West End critics

Television heart-throb David Tennant has been given the critics’ seal of approval for his latest stage role in a modern-day production of Shakespeare’s 'Much Ado About Nothing'.

The former 'Doctor Who' actor traded his Tardis for the West End’s Wyndhams Theatre last night for the play’s opening show – and his performance took the plaudits.

Tennant was reunited with comedienne Catherine Tate – who starred alongside him in the cult BBC science fiction series – for the classic Shakespeare comedy.

Director Josie Rourke decided her adaptation should do some time-travelling itself, setting the play in a naval base on the Costa del Sol in the 1980s.

Scotsman Tennant was cast as the loyal hero Benedick while Tate stars as sharp-tongued adversary Beatrice.

Telegraph critic Charles Spencer described the production as a “populist Shakespeare with both intelligence and heart”.

He said: “The chemistry Tennant and Tate established in Dr Who survives in their performances as the disputatious lovers. Tennant, an old hand at Shakespeare, brings a fine mixture of wit, cynicism and sudden love-struck wonder to Benedick, speaks the language with Scottish-accented clarity, and proves highly sympathetic but never ingratiating.”

Guardian reviewer Michael Billington also praised the adaptation, comparing it favourably to a rival version of Much Ado currently showing at The Globe.

“The West End revival is 20 minutes shorter, more socially specific and much sexier,” he said.

“The pairing of David Tennant as Benedick with Catherine Tate as Beatrice is a marriage that, if not made in heaven, is certainly cemented by television and pays off superbly.”

However, Libby Purves from The Times was less complimentary.

She said: “Tennant and Tate are both seasoned stage actors, but this is sell-out celebrity casting – Doctor Who about nothing – and the production knows it.

“It’s reasonable fun, though I have to say that the Globe’s endearing production made me laugh more and believe more in the warring lovers as human beings reluctant to lower their defences to the absurdities of love.”