David Tennant on unattainability of drama schools in 2025: ‘I had a full grant’

Doctor Who star David Tennant has said he would be unable to afford drama school if he were a student today, explaining he had “a full grant” when he was a pupil.

Scottish university students studying in the country do not have to pay tuition fees but prestigious drama schools in England, including Guildhall School Of Music And Drama and Rada, charge upwards of £9,500 a year in tuition fees for undergraduate courses in acting.

Tennant, 54, studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where students from Scotland can apply for funding which covers both tuition fees and living costs, according to its website.

Speaking about the Scottish screen industry at the Bafta Scotland awards in Glasgow, Tennant said: “I think the thing that really has always worked for the UK and Scotland in particular is the kind of pipeline of talent.

“And that comes through regional theatre, it comes through subsidised arts, and we’ve got to look after that, because the spigot will run dry, and in a few years down the line there won’t be the opportunities.

“I couldn’t have gone to drama school now. I got to go to drama school with a full grant, a maintenance grant. My fees were paid. I couldn’t do it.”

He added: “It’s problematic to the stories we tell if we’re not able to populate those storytellers from every area of society and that’s something that as a country, as a world, we’ve got to look to.

“And Arts Council funding is one of the first things to get cut, because it’s easy.”

He added: “It’s a false economy to not look after that, because the artists that you’re finding now, the kids that are going to drama school now, are the ones that will be, you know, Ewan McGregor, in 20 years’ time.”

Tennant is nominated at the awards in the actor film/television category for his role in Rivals – based on the book by author Dame Jilly Cooper who died at the age of 88 in October.