Show caption ‘I’m an optimist because otherwise there’s no way forward’: David Tennant. Photograph: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP This much I know David Tennant: ‘Organised religion gave me a good moral compass’ The actor, 46, on Scottish football tribalism, optimism and mountaineering up banisters Sarah Ewing Sat 7 Apr 2018 13.59 BST Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter

Share via Email

A good friend once told me: “You’re not as nice as you think you are.” I was stunned because it seemed quite harsh at the time, but she was actually right. She was being cruel to be kind. However, sometimes allowing yourself to be honest about how you’re feeling can be more useful than pretending you’re such a nice person that you can’t ever have a negative thought. Niceness isn’t always a virtue, it can be quite limiting.

I’m a good bluffer. I am a worrier, but I’m quite good at shielding it from the outside world. I think I surprise people, apart from those closest to me, when they find out I’m quite an anxious person.

Organised religion gave me a good moral compass. I grew up in a religious family in Paisley. Dad was a Church of Scotland minister and Mum was every inch the minister’s wife. They were both good people who had respect for others. They were liberal, progressive Christians. They didn’t allow the fact they had a belief system to limit them. They’re gone now, but I still feel them sitting on my shoulder, reminding me to be better.

I’m an optimist because otherwise there’s no way forward. We’re in some very dark days and one can only hope that the pendulum’s about to swing back. I do believe that there’s more good people than not. We all have a responsibility to try and understand what the problem is, because otherwise we’ll just get more polarised.

It can be dangerous to support a football team in the west of Scotland, because of sectarianism. It’s still very tribal. When I was little, my maternal grandmother was a Rangers fan because she was Irish Protestant, so I was a Rangers fan by default because my granny said I had to be. But I’ve never been a football fan and have only been to two matches in my life. As I got older, I began to understand the political implications of which football team you supported, so I was happy to shrug it off.

We’re in a world where how we receive our information becomes ever more valuable. The people who do it well become the people who might just save us from the end of days. On the news, I hate it when they read out people’s comments. A perfectly balanced news report becomes unbalanced by keyboard warrior Jamie from Chester spewing out his ill-educated nonsense, which is read out by a news presenter as if it’s factual.

The closest I’ve come to death was when I was 12. I was mountaineering up the banister in the house, on the outside. I’d just reached the top and looked down, then lost my grip. In a split second, I managed to catch the bottom of a spindle before I crashed 15ft to the floor.

I love working with my wife. She was the boss on the set of You, Me & Him, and I think she’s my boss anyway, so it wasn’t noticeably different from everyday life. We complement each other well. It was a gamble because the older I get, the more cynical I become.

I don’t care how I’ll be remembered, because I won’t be here to observe it. But I would like to be remembered by my family benevolently.