Tennant: ‘Lockdown leveller should help counter inequality’
David Tennant has criticised what he called an “alarming right-wing government” and said lockdown has been a “leveller”.
The Scottish actor, 49, drew parallels with the late 1970s and early 80s setting of his new drama Des, in which he plays serial killer Dennis Nilsen.
He told the Big Issue magazine: “If we’re about to plunge into this recession, the likes of which we have never known, then that will expose all the flaws in our society.
“And I don’t feel comforted by the fact that we’ve got, just like in 1979, a rather alarming right-wing government again. The echoes are pretty worrying.”
He said: “The world through which Dennis Nilsen walked a n d w r e a ke d h i s h avo c – I think we’re closer to it now than we have been for a long time. We’ve got to be alert to that as a society. We’ve got to be very aware that there are dangers and that there are people who are going to be more vulnerable than they should be in the coming months....
“As a society, we have to find ways of providing resources for helping people.”
While calling for more “kindness” for those who are vulnerable, the star, from Bathgate, also said that “this lockdown has been a great leveller”.
He said: “Suddenly ever y - one’s been in the same boat b e c a u s e y o u c a n’t e s c a p e a v i r u s by b e i n g we l l o f f. I t brings us all together.
“And hopefully that allows us all to have a better unders t a n d i n g o f t h e e q u a l i t y o f the individual, which in turn allows us to just think with a bit more kindness and unders t a n d i n g t h a n we’ v e b e e n famous for as a society up to now.”
Discussing his new drama, he said the aim is “memorialising the victims” and not to give the killer “control of the narrative.”
H e s a i d o f t h e d r a m a : “This is about actual peop l e wh o l o s t t h e i r l i ve s , and this is about a failure of society,” And he added: “It’s important we understand that he was one of us. We are all the same animal that Dennis Nilsen was.”
He said of the IT V drama: “Des is telling a stor y about a London that was riven with homelessness and pover t y and joblessn e s s , a n d p e o p l e f a l l i n g through the cracks in societ y, which feels increas - ingly like the society we’re back i n . Thi s to o k p l a c e under Thatcher, who said there was no such thing as society, didn’t she? As long as there’s no such thing as society, then we don’t have a collective responsibility for each other.”
The full interview is in the Big Issue.