The Scottish born Doctor Who star whose adopted son Ty has also been labelled a Nepo baby on account of his famous family, admitted that the connections his dad Sandy Macdonald had in broadcasting came in handy when he started out his acting career.
David explained on his podcast: “He was a minister in the Church of Scotland…The kind of minister, he was very pastoral and hands-on, and he got sort of stuck into all the community stuff.
Asked if he were a Nepo baby David then said : “Oh, definitely.. Yeah. Because also then, Sandy MacDonald became a bit of a television star in Scottish television. He used to do the Thought for the Day and the Late Night Thought for the Day. Oh, they're amazing. It used to be a thing that was on Scottish television every night after the 10 o'clocknews, I think. A little sort of thought. It was called Late Call. And it would be a little Thought for the Day. There'd be usually a minister. I think, you know, as the years went on, they'd controversially now and again have a rabbi or, you know, someone from another faith. It all got, you know, they got quite daring as the years went on. Yeah.
And he would sit there on a little chair with a little table with a bowl of flowers next to him. And he'd go, ‘good evening’.
And he would do a little five minutes and he wrote it himself. Every day he had to have a thought. And you'd record them, you know, in sort of a morning in Scottish television. And then he had his own religious affairs magazine program as well called That's the Spirit.
David then said his dad sent off his picture to the drama department of Scottish Television.
He added: “Not a mate because he didn't know the drama people at Scottish television, but he knew there was a drama department. I suppose because he had a bit of an in, he knew how to get to it. This is absolutely nepotism. If I'm a nepo baby, this is the moment. Just before I went to drama school, he took a photograph of me in the back garden, and this is where he didn't really understand.
He said, ‘Do some big poses’. I was just in a white t-shirt, I remember, and it was a very sunny day.
I can picture these burned into my retinas. I was doing things like shouting at the sky and kind of doing big poses. Anyway. He found someone at Scottish television to send them to. Not somebody he knew, but he found a desk for them to land on. A man called Haldane Duncan, who was a producer-director. Of course, there's so many elements of luck here, but they landed on his desk as he was looking for a 15-year-old to be in a children's drama called Dramarama, which was a kind of anthology show. Every one of the ITV regional stations made two or three episodes each year, and they all contributed it to this series for children's television.
There was only three channels back then, remember? And he was looking to cast a ghost story that needed three teenagers, and this landed on his desk, and he got me in, and I got a part in a Dramarama.”
David explained on his podcast: “He was a minister in the Church of Scotland…The kind of minister, he was very pastoral and hands-on, and he got sort of stuck into all the community stuff.
Asked if he were a Nepo baby David then said : “Oh, definitely.. Yeah. Because also then, Sandy MacDonald became a bit of a television star in Scottish television. He used to do the Thought for the Day and the Late Night Thought for the Day. Oh, they're amazing. It used to be a thing that was on Scottish television every night after the 10 o'clocknews, I think. A little sort of thought. It was called Late Call. And it would be a little Thought for the Day. There'd be usually a minister. I think, you know, as the years went on, they'd controversially now and again have a rabbi or, you know, someone from another faith. It all got, you know, they got quite daring as the years went on. Yeah.
And he would sit there on a little chair with a little table with a bowl of flowers next to him. And he'd go, ‘good evening’.
And he would do a little five minutes and he wrote it himself. Every day he had to have a thought. And you'd record them, you know, in sort of a morning in Scottish television. And then he had his own religious affairs magazine program as well called That's the Spirit.
David then said his dad sent off his picture to the drama department of Scottish Television.
He added: “Not a mate because he didn't know the drama people at Scottish television, but he knew there was a drama department. I suppose because he had a bit of an in, he knew how to get to it. This is absolutely nepotism. If I'm a nepo baby, this is the moment. Just before I went to drama school, he took a photograph of me in the back garden, and this is where he didn't really understand.
He said, ‘Do some big poses’. I was just in a white t-shirt, I remember, and it was a very sunny day.
I can picture these burned into my retinas. I was doing things like shouting at the sky and kind of doing big poses. Anyway. He found someone at Scottish television to send them to. Not somebody he knew, but he found a desk for them to land on. A man called Haldane Duncan, who was a producer-director. Of course, there's so many elements of luck here, but they landed on his desk as he was looking for a 15-year-old to be in a children's drama called Dramarama, which was a kind of anthology show. Every one of the ITV regional stations made two or three episodes each year, and they all contributed it to this series for children's television.
There was only three channels back then, remember? And he was looking to cast a ghost story that needed three teenagers, and this landed on his desk, and he got me in, and I got a part in a Dramarama.”
