We have all heard the stories of fame being as much of an albatross around the neck as it is a bright and shiny Christmas bauble, normally couched in the context of a bio pic morality tale where someone realises their dreams of fame and fortune only to find the upside of celebrity comes with a wholly unwelcome serving of nasty side effects.
It’s a tale as old as, well, celebrity itself, but it’s when you hear from someone as accessible and grounded as David Tennant, the Tenth Doctor Who who combined wit, cleverness and chutzpah to brilliantly-viewable effect, exactly how it feels to be a household name, that you truly understand what its like to be famous.
Tennant’s take is that, far from making you bullet-proof and larger-than-life, it makes you feel vulnerable, that behind the shiny facade of dreams sprung to golden-sheened life, lies a revealing sense of being exposed by an intense and unrelenting spotlight.
Delivered with his characteristic mix of insightful and down to earth charm, Tennant’s musing on the nature of fame is not ridiculously upbeat nor whingey; rather it feels like someone describing fame as it actually is, making you realise that while it does have its charms, it is not, and likely never will be, all your dreams come infallibly true.