Christopher Eccleston: 'BBC blacklisted me after Doctor Who'

Christopher Eccleston has claimed he was put on a "blacklist" by the BBC after he left the lead role in Doctor Who.

“What happened around Doctor Who almost destroyed my career,” the 54-year-old actor has said. “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.

"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.”

Eccleston played the time-travelling hero of the sci-fi series when it returned to TV in 2005 after a 16-year hiatus, but quit the show after just one series. "Myself and three individuals at the very top of the pyramid clashed, so off I went," he has said, explaining his decision in a 2015 interview with Radio 4's Loose Ends. When contacted by The Telegraph, the BBC declined to comment on Eccleston's claims.

The BBC was not the only target of Eccleston's scorn; in a wide-ranging interview with the Guardian, published this weekend, the Salford-born actor said he felt almost suicidal while making the superhero blockbusters Thor: The Dark World and GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

“Working on something like GI Joe was horrendous," he said. "I just wanted to cut my throat every day. And Thor? Just a gun in your mouth... I really paid for being a whore those times.” Eccleston has previously said he took a role in Marvel's Thor sequel "primarily... for the money," adding: "I am open to any kind of work so I can pay the mortgage."

The actor appears to resent much of his own work in mainstream films, with one exception. "Gone in 60 Seconds was a good experience," he said, praising his co-star Nicolas Cage as a "fantastic actor".

Eccleston is currently starring in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of Macbeth, fulfilling an ambition he has held since his student days, when he first realised that – in his words – "all the posh f---ers ruled the RSC and British theatre top to bottom."

Returning to the stage, he said, has offered him a break from "the constipation of screen acting”.