Catherine Tate feared Doctor Who special would end with ‘terrible' final twist

Catherine Tate was certain the ‘Doctor Who’ 60th anniversary special ‘The Giggle’ would end with one “terrible final thing”.

The 54-year-old actress - who returned to the franchise as Donna Noble - appeared in the episode alongside David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor, and after the Time Lord bigenerated, the hero handed over the TARDIS and Sonic Screwdriver to Ncuti Gatwa’s iteration, and opted to retire with Donna and her family.

However, the ending seemed too good to be true for Catherine, who said in BBC documentary ‘Imagine… Russell T. Davies’: “It was so not what I was expecting.

"I thought there was going to be a massive, terrible final thing. [But] to end in the garden eating crumble is, of course, exactly where they should be.”

Showrunner Russell T. Davies explained that he never wanted to put a definitive end on the life of David’s Doctor, and instead was keen to allow him to co-exist with Ncuti’s new version of the character.

He said: “"Everyone’s expecting David Tennant to die and for Ncuti to be reborn as the new guy and, instead, I’ve been dying to do this for years - he splits in half, so you have two Doctors.

"That moment on screen of them going [pop] is astronomically exciting. It is a happy ending and David Tennant survives.”

Russell also revealed that the bigeneration had an huge impact on the programme as a whole, with every previous Doctor, including Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi and Jodie Whittaker’s incarnations, living on in a separate timeline.

He said: “"I think all of the Doctors came back to life with their individual TARDISes, the gift of the Toymaker, and they're all out there travelling round in what I'm calling a Doctor-verse."