Doctor Who legend Peter Davison reveals why son-in-law David Tennant "told him off" in the TARDIS

Doctor Who legend Peter Davison may have helmed the TARDIS decades before David Tennant – but that didn't stop the Tenth Doctor star from giving his father-in-law a good telling off in the console room!

Davison, who played the Fifth Doctor, and who's also the father of Tennant's wife, Georgia, recently opened up about filming Time Crash, the mini-episode for Children in Need, which saw the pair's Doctors join forces – and it seems Tennant wasn't too happy with Davison's treatment of his TARDIS.

"I always loved pressing the buttons on the TARDIS set because it meant the sound department would have to add the noise every time you press a button," Davison recalled during an appearance on The Whoniverse Show.

"It started off with just me on David's set, walking around the TARDIS, just pressing every button and pulling every lever and apparently I did pull one lever that David had decided had a special function... so he told me off a bit about that. 'You can't pull that lever!' But we had a really nice time doing it."

Davison has reprised the Fifth Doctor several times on screen, in Children in Need special Dimensions in Time (1993), subsequent special Time Crash (2007), Jodie Whittaker's Doctor Who swan-song The Power of the Doctor (2022) and the BBC iPlayer series Tales of the TARDIS (2023).

Meanwhile, Tennant returned to the show as the Fourteenth Doctor for the 60th anniversary specials in 2023.

Previously speaking to Radio Times about how the show has impacted his life in all manner of ways, Davison said: "I’m tempted to say that I don’t know anything else now!

"It’s just been a part of my life for so long. From when I first started watching it to, remarkably, being offered the part – and then having a daughter who then had a part in it and then ended up marrying… well, basically, me!"

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Authors

Louise Griffin is the Sci-Fi & Fantasy Editor for Radio Times, covering everything from Doctor Who, Star Wars and Marvel to House of the Dragon and Good Omens. She previously worked at Metro as a Senior Entertainment Reporter and has a degree in English Literature.