Tennant takes on The Pirates!

As if one Doctor taking on pirates wasn't enough, (The Curse of the Black Spot, tonight 6:15pm BBC1/BBC1HD), another will encounter some swashbuckling action too! Former Doctor David Tennant will provide the voice of Charles Darwin in The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists, a new film from Aardman, during which the famous naturalist will team up with a pirate crew led by the Pirate Captain - the lead role being voiced by Hugh Grant (who himself had a brief flirtation with the role of the Doctor in Steven Moffat's The Curse of Fatal Death).

Other characters will be voiced by actors such as Martin Freeman, Russell Tovey, Salma Hayek, and Imelda Staunton (as pirate-hating Queen Victoria!).

The animated tale is based on two books from The Pirates! series by Gideon Defoe, who also wrote the screenplay, and is the first collaboration by Aardman with Sony Pictures Entertainment (their previous films being with Dreamworks). It is due to be released in cinemas March next year.