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"Doctor Who star Matt Smith has expressed hopes that Christopher Eccleston will return for a guest appearance. Eccleston played the Ninth Doctor in Doctor Who&amp;#039;s first revived series, but has previously ruled out ever returning to program.   &amp;quot;I never bathe in the same river twice,&amp;quot; he told Graham Norton in 2011. In a recent interview about the sci-fi series&amp;#039;s 50th anniversary, current Doctor Who star Smith said he is still quite keen for his predecessors to return for a multi-Doctor episode. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s a [good idea], yeah. But that&amp;#039;s easier said than done I would have thought,&amp;quot; Smith said, reports Esquire. He continued: &amp;quot;Chris will be alright. Well, I mean, who knows? I&amp;#039;d love it. I&amp;#039;d love him to come back... I love his Doctor. I really do. He was from Manchester. Proper hard. Leather jacket. He&amp;#039;d give my Doctor a bit of a whopping, wouldn&amp;#039;t he?&amp;quot; Smith&amp;#039;s latest comments echo his previous declaration that he would love to work with Eccleston and David Tennant. &amp;quot;I think as an event if it did ever happen - I don&amp;#039;t know how feasible it is - to get David [Tennant] and Chris [Eccleston] back would be amazing,&amp;quot; he said last month.  Matt Smith pictured with new Doctor Who co-star Jenna-Louise Coleman The upcoming Doctor Who Christmas Special will see the return of Richard E Grant to the franchise. Grant previously played a non-canonical version of The Doctor in the Comic Relief sketch &amp;#039;The Curse of the Fatal Death&amp;#039; and the web series Scream of the Shalka. Doctor Who kicks off its seventh series with the premiere episode &amp;#039;Asylum of the Daleks&amp;#039; in August, although a premiere date has not been announced. Watch the trailer for the seventh series of Doctor Who below:      "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/doctor-who/news/a397667/doctor-who-matt-smith-wants-christopher-eccleston-return/>