Doctor Who star Paul McGann has revealed that he feels like “there’s still a bit of potential” for the Eighth Doctor to appear onscreen again.

The actor made his debut as the Time Lord twenty years ago this month in 1996’s ‘TV Movie’ and reprised the role in 2013’s minisode ‘The Night of the Doctor’, which had 2.5 million views across YouTube, iPlayer and the BBC Red Button in its first week alone.

McGann told Doctor Who Magazine: “We’ve all got a shelf life… It’s not going to go on forever. I’m in the slightly unusual position, even from McCoy and Colin Baker in that, with the Eighth [Doctor], it feels like there’s still a bit of potential. It feels like it ain’t quite over… Often we’re subject to rumours, and rumours are only ever rumours. But because I came back to do the Doctor, it was all the proof these fans needed that there’s still life in this thing.”

He joked: “I’m not that different. It’s only 20 years since we made the pilot. And I’m younger than Capaldi, not by much, but I am. What am I doing?! I’m not trying to talk myself into a job!”

Discussing the fan petitions to give the Eighth Doctor his own spin-off TV series, he revealed: “I don’t think I’ve ever said this, but I’ll say it now… part of me wouldn’t mind at all.”

He added: “The material would have to work, like ‘The Night of the Doctor’ worked. That was clever and in-keeping. It would be pointless to come back and do something just for the sake of doing it. First and foremost, it would have to be a good acting job, to merit it. It’ll probably never happen, of course! It’s always probably never going to happen! But certainly if it did, I would…”

> Buy ‘The TV Movie’ on DVD on Amazon.

Season 10 will begin filming in July, with Pearl Mackie joining Peter Capaldi’s Doctor as new companion Bill.

> Here’s everything we know so far about Season 10.

Would you like to see Paul McGann’s Doctor return? Let us know below…