#also 'we suffer many ailments darlin' but heterosexualism isn't one of them'

[ingravinoveritas]

I don’t know if anyone has seen the pilot of Heart To Heart--a web series in which David Tennant plays the heart of a dying 21-year-old lesbian (a.k.a, Lump)--but it is actually hilarious and also quite touching. The first two episodes are now available to view, along with a Q+A with the creators.

As mentioned, David voices the titular organ and utters a number of deeply filthy/memorable lines (including but not limited to “ya funky little lesbian,” “ice vole and ermine,” at least three instances of the word “pussy,” and making actual high-pitched breathy sex noises), while sounding like a drunk, lecherous Scottish pirate the entire time.

What was interesting to me, however, was that in the Q+A panel, one of the creators said that David mentioned during recording that he almost never uses that particular voice--a heavy, camp Glaswegian accent--for roles. And as I thought about it, it occurred to me that the one other role of note where he used that accent was the Ghost of Christmas Present in Nan’s Christmas Carol with Catherine Tate.

(Screencap chosen because he just looks so goddamn cute here.)

In many of the roles David’s played, he’s had to do accents other than his own. An RP accent for Doctor Who and Shakespeare, an English accent for Crowley, an American accent on a few occasions (god help us, please never again). Even when he’s gotten to have a Scottish accent--such as in Secret Smile--it’s more often than not toned down for the audience. (The one exception, of course, is Broadchurch, where Alec Hardy’s accent is aggressively Scottish and seemingly much closer to David’s own.) The thing about Lump the Heart and the Ghost of Christmas Present, though, is that they are decidedly non-straight roles, and in both cases, David’s accent takes on a different quality. It almost feels like the roles and the accent represent a part of him...a part that maybe David has had to keep hidden a lot of the time. The camp and the flamboyance of these roles seem as equally connected to a possible part of David’s sexuality as to who he is overall--a Scotsman living in London who knows that people who sound like him are perceived a certain way (and most especially so if they’re not 100% straight). But Scotland--especially the area of Glasgow--is where David’s heart lives. It’s his home. So maybe these particular roles are where and how David can “go home” again, and feel the most safe to express that part of who he is.

I also keep thinking about Good Omens 2 filming in Scotland, and how significant that is to David, and that hopefully it will mean he can see his family while he’s there. Maybe he would want to be Michael’s personal tour guide, too...showing him where he grew up in Paisley and chattering excitedly about the landscape and the people and all sorts of little things. (And of course Michael  would be completely enchanted by David’s adorable enthusiasm.) And maybe there--in Scotland, with Michael--is another place he’d feel safe to be himself. l hope so, anyway.

So, yes. Those are just some observations I had about some of the delightful new David content we’ve been treated to recently. Always wonderful to see (or in this case, hear) him lighting up the screen...