After he dies, David Tennant wants to donate his skull to be used on stage. As you do.
The Doctor Who actor first worked with a real human skull during a production of Hamlet in 2008 where he starred as the titular character, who laments the death of Yorick while talking to his skull.
Speaking to the Off Menu podcast, the Broadchurch star explained how he would love for his skull to be used in future productions.
‘We had a real skull,’ he began. ‘We had the skull of a real human – a guy called Andre Tchaikovsky who was a classical musician who had left his skull to The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) to appear in a production of Hamlet.
‘So I did not have to fake any weight there. I was holding Andre, he was Yorick. I was really really thrilled, not in a macabre way.’
‘That moment in the play is about connecting with mortality, so there’s no acting involved – you’re looking into the eyes of a human who once walked the Earth. There’s something very powerful about that.’
Concert pianist Andre died aged 46 in 1982 of colon cancer, famously bequeathing his skull to the RSC for productions of Hamlet.
However, the skull lay unused for many years as actors felt uncomfortable holding it in scenes – until 2008 when David used the famed skull in his performance as Hamlet.
Though he is keen for his skull to be used in the same way, he admitted he was uncertain whether the RSC would take a second one.
‘To be honest, I don’t think you can do it anymore, cos Andre had done it and left it and it had gone through all the various….there’s a lot of hoops to jump through, for various governmental organisations who perhaps frown on the idea of body parts being left to anything really other than cremation,’ he told hosts Ed Gamble and James Acaster.
‘So I think the laws have now changed, that Andre is probably the last person to have been able to have done that. But his skull is still there, he can be used in future productions of Hamlet.’
According to the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology (BABOA), it is an offence to hold human remains that are less than 100 years old for ‘Scheduled Purpose’ unless a licence has been obtained from the Human Tissue Authority (HTA).
Public display is defined as showing the skull to the public, so using one on stage could be classed as Scheduled Purpose under public display.
The HTA states: ‘In the case of public display and anatomical examination, removal cannot take place based on someone else’s consent.
‘If consent was not obtained from the individual before they died, the tissue or organ(s) cannot be taken.’
BABOA states it is also illegal to exhume or remove human remains from a place of burial without proper legal authority, such as an exhumation licence or a Diocesan faculty.
So if David gave his permission for his skull to be used ahead of his death, and with the proper licenses in place, it could be used in future productions of Hamlet – in the UK at least.
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