Doctor Who's Paul McGann "waited for a phone call" when series returned with Christopher Eccleston

McGann has also returned to the franchise, frequently as part of Big Finish audio adventures and a couple of times on screen, in the eras run by Steven Moffat and Chris Chibnall.

In spite of this, McGann has now revealed that he's actually never met or spoken to Davies at all, and that when the show was first revived in 2005, he was waiting by the phone for a call asking him to appear on the series for a day.

This revelation came in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine, in which his Big Finish co-star India Fisher said in a conversation with McGann: "I remember getting an email from [showrunner] Russell T Davies saying, 'Thank you so much. If it hadn’t been for Charley, then Rose Tyler would never have been created.'

"And I was like, 'That’s lovely. Do you want to cast me, then?'"

McGann responded: "Well, at least you had an email. That’s more contact than I’ve ever had with him!"

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He went on to say: "Never met him, never spoken to him, never had an email. I mean, I admire him greatly, but no. I’ve never met him."

Speaking about his initial reaction to the news of the show's 2005 revival, he said: "Yeah. So, I thought to myself, 'OK. No one has called me yet, but maybe the phone will ring and they’ll ask me to come and do a day on this thing.' But no!" he laughed.

"That’s proper 'sad actor', isn’t it? When actors aren’t working, they sit in a room, looking out of a window, waiting for the phone to ring. And that was me for all those years. And the phone didn’t ring!"

McGann previously revealed he wanted to return to the show on TV, saying: "I was recently in one of the Jodie Whittaker episodes (The Power of the Doctor). That's the only time that the Eighth Doctor got on to the telly. So it gave me a little taste for it. I wouldn't mind doing some more."

Late last year, it was reported that a spin-off series focusing on McGann was indeed in the works - however, unless McGann isn't being entirely honest about his level of contact with Davies, it seems this may not in fact be the case.

The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine is available to order now.

Doctor Who will return at Christmas on BBC iPlayer and BBC One. Previous seasons are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

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