Entertainment
Christopher Eccleston says returning to Doctor Who after 16 years is ‘paid work’ as he opens up about reprising role
Christopher Eccleston has opened up about his decision to reprise his Doctor Who role for the first time in 16 years, describing it as ‘paid work’.
In 2005, Christopher, 57, played the Ninth Doctor in the reprisal of the sci-fi series, starring in the show alongside companion Rose Tyler (Billie Piper).
The actor is set to return to the Tardis for Big Finish’s upcoming audio dramas, having previously been adamant that his time as the Doctor was officially done.
During a recent interview, Christopher said that he has ‘always had a great love’ for the Doctor, explaining that when he was previously asked to come back, it was not ‘the right time’, because of things he had going on in his career and private life.
Christopher stated that a large part of his decision to star in the audio series understandably came down to needing ‘paid work’ as an actor.
‘First of all, I mean, it’s not a fashionable thing to say and because we’re all English we don’t talk about these things, but I’m an actor and the way I pay my mortgage and support my children is by acting. So it’s paid work,’ he told Doctor Who Magazine via The Independent.
The executive producer of the audio series Nick Briggs, who also voices the Daleks for Doctor Who, recently spoke to Metro.co.uk about how quickly Christopher was able to get back into character after such a long period of time away.
‘He’s really joyous about it,’ Nick explained. ‘He said within two minutes of doing it, he was back in the zone, back there with the character.
Nick added that Christopher was very ‘flattering’ to him with regards to the script.
‘He said, “You’ve really captured the character as I played him and it’s the way he spoke”,’ Nick recalled.
The writer added that Christopher was able to bring his own sense of humour to his performance.
‘It’s been really lovely, actually. He’s made us laugh a lot,’ Nick said, speaking fondly of the recording experience.
‘And he’s been singing quite a bit as well. He’s a real music enthusiast.’
Doctor Who is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
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MORE : Doctor Who: Christopher Eccleston took just ‘two minutes’ to get back in character as Ninth Doctor
