You know you’re getting old when your
childhood hero is younger than you.
Yes, that was the revelation I was hit with this week when I discovered that David Tennant, the current actor to play Doctor Who, is only 37. For the first time, the hero I have loyally followed since I was three, turns out to be my junior.
How depressing. He was my hero, someone to
respect, and carried a maturity and intelligence associated with our seniors
and betters. After all, the character was first conceived as an old man – aged
900 but looking 60 – in the form of actor William Hartnell. Subsequent Doctors
came and went, but all could count their age difference to me in decades. When
Christopher Eccleston took over the role in 2005, I knew my days on the right
side of 900 were numbered. Now it’s happened.
Just as my grandfather used to complain that policemen got younger every year, I have been confronted with my own mortality from an unexpected direction.
I’m older than the actor paying a 900 year
old man.
I need a lie down.
