EMILY COOK
Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, David Tennant, Peter Davison and Matt Smith. Photo © Rankin.
On 14 December at 10.47am, Red Nose Day director Emma Freud tweeted:‘I have some very very very very exciting news. If you like Doctor Who…’ After several clues – which included photos of Steven Moffat and a TARDIS – Emma tweeted again:‘For @rednoseday we held a raffle to have breakfast with 7 Dr Whos. It’s today! #RNDbreakfastofdoctors’ This extraordinary prize was announced last March as part of a fundraising auction and raffle for Red Nose Day 2017, in aid of Comic Relief. “My friend Emma Kennedy and I were brainstorming potential prizes”, recalls Emma. “She said, ‘You know what would raise more money than everything else put together? A chance for fans to meet lots of Doctor Whos. But it’s never been done before and I guess it would be literally impossible.’” Emma nevertheless decided to take on the challenge. “I instantly started to plan”, she says. “The first Doctor I got in touch with was David Tennant, as he’s an honorary trustee of Comic Relief; an amazing ally, and has made more money for our projects than almost anyone else in the UK. He instantly said yes. Next I asked Matt Smith because he’d foolishly given me his phone number when Richard [Curtis, Emma’s partner and Comic Relief co-founder] and I worked with him on Vincent and the Doctor [the 2010 Eleventh Doctor episode which Richard wrote and Emma script-edited]. When he agreed, I asked Peter Capaldi who said yes within seconds, and after that everybody else agreed as well.” Alongside David Tennant, Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi, the final line-up of