When I did the programme on television back in the 80s there wasn’t a lot of opportunity to develop the character. I only had two series and there was a kind of long-term game plan which was somewhat frustrated by the curtailment of my time.

A lot of the stuff that I wasn’t able to do and to show when I was playing the part has now emerged in the audio versions, which means that I have been able to examine some of the darker aspects of the Doctor.

The writers have been able to draw on things that I always wanted to show. The Doctor, if he’s a Time Lord, 900 years old, has travelled through space and time, has two hearts and a body temperature of whatever it is, he ain’t going to behave like a bloke who’s on the bus in Tooting.

He’s going to be somewhat different and it’s that difference that we’re beginning to investigate, the unpredictability, the sharpness, the edginess.

Ultimately, it boils down to good scripts. I had good scripts when I was doing it [on television] but not all of them were as good as the ones that I’m getting now, and the one that we’re broadcasting on the web is a thumping good Cybermen story. It’s nice to get back to good story telling, good traditional Doctor Who story telling.