Neither side is particularly vocal about what happened, so we don’t really know and the imagined drama is of course bigger than what may actually have happened.

We know for certain that Eccleston soured on the gig during the shooting of series 1 and didn’t want to go on. Contrary to mutual agreements, the BBC announced his departure even before the second episode had aired, using a fabricated quote attributed to Eccleston.

He made the BBC retract the statement, but has since said the false statement hurt his job opportunities and that BBC blacklisted him. He has also said that he was quoted as saying that “he was tired” after one season, but this was not part of the official BBC announcement.

Now, rumours tell us a bit more about the pressure and conditions of making that series: apparently, the director of the first block of episodes (Rose, Aliens in London, and World war three) wasn’t used to making scifi shows, and so made a lot of mistakes that wore down the crew and cast. I believe he is the one Eccleston calls “atrocious” in the linked panel and transcript:

By the first week, they were three weeks behind schedule. Lots of scenes had to be reshot by other directors at later dates. One special effects scene involving an explosion went terribly wrong and a sofa flying out a window almost hit a crew member. In the end that scene couldn’t even be used.

Eccleston was 40 by this time, a seasoned professional, and a socially conscientious one too. According to the same rumours, he was furious with the conditions of the first block shoot and went to management — which would be Davies, Tranter, Collinson and Gardner, the same foursome that are running the show again now. Whatever he demanded of them, whatever their response was, we don’t know for sure — but it appears that wass the straw that broke the camel’s back for him.

As he says in the panel recording, there were genuine highlights later in the production but apparently they couldn’t outweigh the damage that was done to his working relationship with the showrunner and producers.

Add to all the above that it has since come to light how John Barrowman made it a running joke to get naked on set and come up behind others to put his penis on them. Intended as pranks, sure, but it probably riled up an actor like Eccleston, who has gone on to deny working with “that prick” again.

More seriously Noel Clarke has been accused of sexual harrasment by a score of female crew and colleagues — actions that have taken place on productions such as Doctor who. I’m pretty sure that and Barrowman’s non-consentual transgressions is what Eccleston refers to when he talks about “pre MeToo” lawlessness on the production.

All in all, it paints a rather dire picture of a production that wore out its cast and crew, occasionally had hazardous lack of safety on sets, there were not one but two male co-stars stepping over personal and professional boundaries — and when the lead addressed some or all of this to the management, it doesn’t seem that anything was done about it.

Like I said, we don’t know the full picture, so I’ve tried to separate fact from rumour as far as I’m able. I think you’ll be able to find sources for most of the above. Certainly the Barrowman/Clarke misconduct and harassment accusations are recorded in the press, and seem credible to me.

[Edited to make clear that Barrowman being naked on and around co-workers is also a transgression]