Hey! Hallie here!
I’m still hung up on the ‘Good Omens’ news we received last week. I’m so in love with the series that, despite the fact that it will likely be a little over a year before we actually get to see it, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. So, of course, I decided to deal with this issue by binging as much Michael Sheen and David Tennant content as possible. From behind the scenes footage to their lockdown series ‘Staged’, I can’t help but fall in love with their friendship. Here are some of my favorite bits of David Tennant and Michael Sheen’s friendship to help those still swimming in all of this excitement get a little bit of satisfaction.
‘Good Omens’:
Of course we have to start out with the series that kicked off this friendship. The first season of ‘Good Omens’ marked the first time Michael Sheen and David Tennant were able to work with one another. They had been interested in working with each other after viewing each other’s work. But because they were often considered for the same roles, they didn’t end up working together in much of anything. ‘Good Omens’ allowed them the opportunity to fully interact and wound up cementing a friendship between them. Their chemistry is very clear on screen thanks to their love of working with each other. Michael Sheen has said in multiple interviews that he played Aziraphale as being very much in love with Crowley, which was easy to do opposite the very lovable David Tennant. They also spent every interview during the time they were promoting the show complimenting each other. Michael Sheen would comment on how good looking David Tennant was only for Tennant to fire back with how incredibly kind he felt Sheen was. Michael Sheen famously said that the hardest part of playing Aziraphale was getting so caught up in Tennant’s performance that he nearly forgot to continue the scene. David Tennant, for his part, called Michael so inspiring that it put pressure on him to ensure he didn’t let him down. Even better is how much they make each other laugh in these interviews. I feel the best example of this is the IGN interview where the pair were tasked to read and respond to comments. Michael’s screams of “Gollum!” and “What has happened to your hair????” and David guessing Sheen had lived for some time as Nicholas Cage rather than next to him, left them practically falling out of their chairs laughing. There’s truly nothing more pure than ‘Good Omens’ era Sheen and Tennant.
‘The Graham Norton Show’:
While there are tons of interviews to look at that’ll give you some David Tennant and Michael Sheen joy, ‘The Graham Norton Show’ never fails to bring out the best of them with some more casual conversation. I feel the most popular moment from their first appearance together on the show is David Tennant’s perfect pronunciation of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. I really hope I spelled that correctly. But besides that it was fun to see David Tennant attempt to explain his bewilderment with the inappropriate uses of emojis. His certainty that no one else was aware of this was hilariously disrupted by Michael Sheen’s exasperation that he hadn’t been aware of any of it. Their second appearance on the show happened almost two years later as a result of the pandemic and covered their work on the show ‘Staged’. They both spoke about how they had seen each other almost daily through the pandemic because of video chatting, but both hadn’t spent much time at all with each other in person since they had been on the show the first time. Michael specifically poked fun at the amount of children David had to amuse in order to get any filming done. Another cute moment occurred when Tennant recounted a moment in a stage production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ when he, as Romeo, had accidentally been hit by a sword during the fight just before his death scene. He hadn’t thought much of it, but during his last scene he noticed he was bleeding quite a bit and nearly passed out before he could finish it. Michael asked if there was a moment where he thought he was going to die at the same moment Romeo did, only for David to tease that he always did because he was always in character. Michael was unimpressed.
‘Staged’:
‘Staged’ is a fun series David Tennant and Michael Sheen tackled during quarantine. The first season follows a fictional version of the both of them as they attempt to rehearse a play over Zoom. The second season follows the success of the first season and the potential US adaption which seems to be looking to recast the roles of Michael and David. This series takes most of its comedy from the idea that Tennant and Sheen are friends but have a large amount of ego on top of that. This usually ends in what is basically various insult competitions. Michael Sheen and David Tennant confessed that it was much easier to play these parts now that they’re close because they found it easier to make fun of one another that way. The series also involved their families. With these two families coming together to work on such an intimate project, Georgia Tennant and Anna Lundberg also became close friends. They spoke about how fun it was to film with the four of them on screen. A few scenes even required them to drink some alcohol which meant rewatching these scenes later on revealed a few of them to be a bit tipsy. Overall a fun workday. The way that Michael Sheen and David Tennant decided to continue working together even over quarantine is heartwarming and their families were pulled along for the ride in the most delightful way.
I love David Tennant and Michael Sheen’s friendship. Even before I knew they had come out of ‘Good Omens’ as friends, I knew I wanted to see more of them together. It only made me happier to look at their interviews and see how genuinely they liked each other. And if anything describes their relationship, it is definitely their statements on ‘Good Omens’ season two. David Tennant expressed joy that he would be working with Michael again, though he noted that the fact that the world is being threatened again is significantly worse news. Michael Sheen said that if he and David Tennant didn’t “fall out too badly this time” they might be able to save the world. Truly the best kind of friendship.
Don’t do anything fun until I get back!
Hallie
Oreos & Peanut Butter 