10 Doctor Who Scenes Even More Impressive When You Know The Truth
3. Master Of Mime
Catherine Tate wasn't known as a dramatic actress before Doctor Who, which caused a good amount of skepticism when she was announced in a recurring role.
She soon proved the doubters wrong of course, with several powerful, emotionally-charged moments in her second episode The Fires of Pompeii, but what wasn't a surprise was that she absolutely nailed the comedy.
Her debut episode Partners in Crime features her funniest Doctor Who moment, with the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble communicating via mime. It seems like the sort of thing that would be meticulously planned beforehand, but that wasn't actually the case.
Tate was given very little guidance on how to perform the mime, with the script simply reading "Donna does a little mime." Naturally, she asked director James Strong if he had any thoughts on the scene (he didn't), before turning to showrunner Russell T Davies, who wasn't much help either, responding "see what Catherine comes up with."
And so, Tate invented the whole thing on the day.
The scene could very easily have been awkward rather than funny, so it's a testament to her comedic abilities that it turned out so well.