I guess he got tired of the same question asked over and over again? 🤣

Since it’s unlikely the BBC will be sacking the show runner and exec producer, nor severing ties with Bad Wolf, Eccleston’s ninth Doctor is indefinitely benched…

Update:

@[email protected] supplied a link to a recording of the panel, and Eccleston provides a few more details, transcribed below. Just a few minutes in, Eccleston reminisces about looking out for Piper, this being her first big acting gig:

CE: This was pre MeToo, it was pre BlackLivesMatter, it was pre all this mental awareness stuff, wasn’t it?

BP: Yeah. […] It was more lawless.

CE: It was lawless, as we found out subsequently.

On the shooting experience of one episode:

CE: We were filming an episode, and because the director was atrocious we ran three hours late. You know, the crew were not happy, we weren’t happy.

He says he and Piper were late for the read-through of Dalek because of this, so if anyone is privy to the production schedule they can probably figure out if this is the same guy who was to blame for the exploding sofa…

On the circumstances of Eccleston’s departure:

BP: I don’t know if you remember this, but when you said you were going, I wanted to go as well.

CE: I didn’t know that […] The whole thing was politically manipulated by others. It interfered with our relationship, but that’s another story.

On what would be required for him returning to the character of the Doctor:

CE: (without hesitating) Sack Russell T Davies, sack Jane Tranter, sack Phil Collinson, sack Julie Gardner, and I’ll come back. So can you arrange that?

Q: Did you find it hard to be associated with the character, given —?

CE: (breaks in) Not at all. I love being associated with the character, just don’t like being associated with those people and the politics that went on in the first series. The first series was a mess, and it wasn’t to do with me or Billie. It was to do with the people who were supposed to make it, and it was a mess. And the first series of any show […] First series, nobody wants to know. The BBC were like, “We’re gonna keep a big distance from this”. And then as soon as it was a success, they were all up close going, “I was responsible for that!” but they were all like… at a distance, like “This is a folly” — “Eccleston’s folly”, “Piper’s folly”, “Russell T Davies’ folly” […] They wouldn’t come anywhere near us, and then they’d jump on the bandwagon. Those kind of politics I’m not very good at handling. I can’t swallow that shit.

When an audience member expresses hia sympathy at what Eccleston went through on the set:

CE: Listen, it wasn’t like being down the pit. It’s just politics! Everybody’s got a job, you all work with people you don’t like. Whether you’re an actor, [in] a plastic moulding factory or… You know, a boozer. Listen — I was getting paid a lot of money. It’s fine. (Laughs) Please don’t feel sorry for me!

Whatever problems existed with some directors on the first series, it was definitely not the case with Joe Ahearne, whose work and aesthetic both Eccleston and Piper wax poetic about; Eccleston has continued working with him and they still have projects in development.

edit — removed the link to the second hand source which was, admittedly, a trash site.