Probably best known for his role as the Doctor in the BBC television series Doctor Who, this is Tennant’s seventh play with the Royal Shakespeare Company and he is pleased to be back.

He said: “I've been on sabbatical to 'television-land' for the past few years which I've probably ended up better known for.

“But this feels like the day job. It's what I do. So it's great to be back and working with Greg.”

According to Tennant acting on film and on stage are “completely different jobs”.

He said: “They are, of course, both about pretending to be other people.

“But rehearsing a play is about finding an emotional journey so that you can repeat it, whereas television is about getting that moment once when all the technical elements are in alignment and it's locked down for evermore.

“From an actor’s point of view you have more control of the event in theatre. When it's in film it's created in post production essentially from a bunch of cuts, whereas here that moment happens in the auditorium and whether it works or not can be unique to each individual performance.”

As well as playing Hamlet he will take on the part of Berowne in the company’s forthcoming production of Love's Labour's Lost - both are roles he has longed to play.

He said: “Hamlet is often regarded as the acme of acting to test yourself against, which isn't a particularly helpful thought to be honest. Of course it is very flattering to be asked to do that role because of everything that is attached to it.

“But once you get into rehearsal you have to relinquish thoughts like that and just try and tell the story.”

Unlike Tennant, most of the Hamlet cast were involved in the company’s previous production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

And for this reason the Dr Who actor feels they would have been “perfectly within their rights to be a little bit sniffy about a new boy coming in to do the next show”.

But Tennant has found everyone “very welcoming and enthusiastic”.

The production is being staged in The Courtyard Theatre, which Tennant feels lends itself to the play.

He said: “It feels nice and intimate.”

The production will run until November 15.

www.rsc.org.uk