Catherine Tate wants to return to 'Doctor Who' as her character Donna Noble.

Catherine Tate

Catherine Tate

The 49-year-old actress was Tenth Doctor David Tennant's TARDIS companion in Series 4 after first appearing as the character in the 2006 Christmas Special and she then made a brief reappearance in Tennant's final regeneration episodes in 2009.

Catherine would be keen to make a comeback to the BBC One sci-fi series to star opposite Thirteenth Doctor Jodie Whittaker if she got a call from new showrunner Chris Chibnall.

Appearing on 'The Jason Manford Show' on Absolute Radio, she said: "It wouldn't be up to me because you can't just turn up on the set uninvited. They don't like it. But that would be nice. I haven't tried. Probably all the security would still remember me."

Although she wants to make a return to 'Doctor Who', Catherine hasn't actually seen Jodie, 36, in her debut series.

She added: "I haven't yet, only because I won't understand them and it makes me feel inferior. But I know she's brilliant because she's fantastic."

However, Catherine has never been a committed Whovian and had never seen the programme before she accepted her part in it.

She said: "I'd not watched any of it. In fact, funnily enough the only episode I'd actually caught was when it had gone back to the 80s. So it was like a period piece, but I didn't know that. I had turned it on and thought it's exactly the same, the production values haven't changed, it's exactly the same as when I used to watch it. This is shocking!"

Catherine admits landing the part of Donna Noble was a "real game changer" in her career and life as it opened up a lot of new opportunities to her away from her comedy roots.

The former 'Big Train' star said: "It was a real game changer actually in my life, 'Doctor Who', because I got to meet these wonderful people and other things came of it. I absolutely loved it. It doesn't make me a sci-fi aficionado, I still don't know what goes on, and I wasn't quite aware of what was going on to me."

You can listen to 'The Jason Manford Show' on Absolute Radio (absoluteradio.co.uk) every Sunday from 8am.

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