“Yes, I have felt bitter, and yes, I have felt betrayed, but I know also that Doctor Who was the best thing that, professionally, ever happened to me, not so much a learning curve as a plunge down a well and a long climb towards the sunshine I see now,” he writes.
“These days, I feel nothing but positive about the show, to the extent I have even started doing conventions, something I’d been wary of because I always wanted to earn my money from acting.”
After appearing at conventions for the last couple of years (and just this month making his US convention debut), Eccleston says that he’s found the attention of his fans extremely therapeutic.
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“What I’ve actually found is some amazing people who want to talk to me not only about Doctor Who but Our Friends in the North, 28 Days Later, Second Coming, Shallow Grave, Cracker, and so on,” he writes.
“People bring memorabilia from across my whole career, which makes me feel good about my work and also about myself. It has healed something in me.
“Forget producers, forget politics – here are real people who have seen me do my stuff and want to shake my hand.”
Reflecting on his time in the role as a whole, Eccleston says that he now has a more positive reflection of his days piloting the TARDIS.
“So when anyone, including myself, tries to tell me Doctor Who wasn’t a good fit, I tell them straight – ‘But that’s exactly why I did it,'" Eccleston recalls. "I did something positive. The role – posh, received pronunciation – needed changing.
“And I changed it,” he concludes.
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I Love the Bones of You: My Father And The Making Of Me by Christopher Eccleston is out now in hardback from Simon & Schuster
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