In praise of Christopher Eccleston who is returning to Doctor Who - Anthony Clavane

Okay, it’s not until May 2021. And he’s only reprising his role as the Ninth Doctor in a collection of audio stories.

And he only actually played the Time Lord for one series. But, as Dr Evil once pleaded to his acolytes in an Austin Powers movie: “Throw me a frickin’ bone here, people.”

In a week when we nose-dived into recession, saw yet more perilous migrant Channel crossings and reflected on the fiasco of the A-level results – not to mention the oppressive heatwave, the continued fall-out of Covid-19 and a government Minister bizarrely shouting at ice cream – it was good to be cheered up by the Eccleston news.

Not that Eccleston is known for, at least in his many iconic roles during a long and distinguished career, cheering people up.

From his 1991 breakthrough as Derek Bentley in Let Him Have It to his swaggering Macbeth in the RSC’s 2018 production – via Danny Boyle’s thriller Shallow Grave – the intense, obsessive, notably gritty actor has tended to play, well, intense, obsessive and notably gritty characters.

Often these characters have been involved in, or at least accused of, murder. Yet when he appeared in the 2005 reboot of Doctor Who – following the show’s 16-year absence from our TV screens (not counting the one-off 1996 TV movie) – he brought some joy back into our lives.

Along with show-runner Russell T Davies, he reminded us just how exciting, thought-provoking and, yes, funny The Doctor could be.

In the first episode Billy Piper’s Rose asked him: “If you are an alien, how come you sound like you’re from the north?” To which Eccleston replied: “Lots of planets have a north.”

This quote – which is enshrined on a T-shirt I am currently wearing, a birthday present from my Sheffield-based daughter – sums up not only the humour but also the unapologetic northernness of the revived sci-fi drama.

Before Eccleston, the Time Lord was an upper-middle-class, southern English, posh chap with a cravat, frock coat or Oxbridge scarf. Occasionally all three. Think William Hartnell, Jon Pertwee and, despite his Liverpool origins, Tom Baker.

After Eccleston, a proud son of Salford, we’ve had two Scots – although one dropped his accent – and Yorkshire’s very own Jodie Whittaker. And Jodie’s companions Yaz, Ryan, and Graham all live in Sheffield.

Eccleston’s thrillingly re-invented Doctor paved the way for all this. Until recently, he hasn’t spoken much about his year as the eccentric space-time adventurer, apart from pointing out that there was a “political” element to taking on the role of The Doctor; as with Macbeth he wanted to show youngsters that a working-class northerner could do it.

But Eccleston has been opening up a lot more about things lately. In a critically-acclaimed memoir, I Love the Bones of You, he bravely revealed his mental health struggles. He has explained the behind-the-scenes problems that triggered a fall-out with Davies 15 years ago.

He has been attending the odd convention, joshing with Whovians about returning to the show. “I am coming back,” he teased an audience in New York. "I’m going to do the 100th anniversary. In 2063, the Ninth Doctor will return.”

This is a reference to his infamous no-show in the 50th anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor, which teamed up his successors David Tennant and Matt Smith and featured a lovely cameo from Baker.

But Eccleston’s brief statement, last week, about starring in 12 new audio stories was no tease: “After 15 years it will be exciting to revisit the Ninth Doctor’s world, bringing back to life a character I love playing.”

Of course, being on the radio, we won’t be able to see his black leather jacket or sonic screwdriver. Or marvel at how the Tardis’s interior is bigger than its exterior.

But we will be able to hear him and thus be reminded of how the first ever regionally-accented Time Lord brought warmth, wit and wonder to his battles against the Cybermen, Daleks and other monstrous baddies. Not to mention northern grit.

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