Eccleston Talks More About His Controversial Doctor Who Exit

Ninth Doctor Chris Eccleston has opened up once again about this controversial Doctor Who exit in 2005. And he’s not mincing his words…

“What happened around Doctor Who almost destroyed my career,” he told the Guardian in an wide-ranging interview.

“I gave them a hit show and I left with dignity and then they put me on a blacklist. I was carrying my own insecurities as it was something I had never done before and then I was abandoned, vilified in the tabloid press and blacklisted.”

He continues: “I was told by my agent at the time: ‘The BBC regime is against you. You’re going to have to get out of the country and wait for regime change.’ So I went away to America and I kept on working because that’s what my parents instilled in me.”

Previously Eccleston has said it was “tragic” he didn’t get to play the Doctor for longer: “He’s a beautiful character and I have a great deal of professional pride [in it] and had I done a second season, there would’ve been a marked improvement in my performance.”

Though why he didn’t come back for Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary having been invited when a “regime change” was in place is still puzzling.