It’s been six years since Mickey Smith last appeared on Doctor Who – yup, we feel old too.

But now his alter-ego Noel Clarke’s says that he’d consider returning to the series… only this time, behind the camera.

Clarke’s directed four movies since 2008, with his latest – Brotherhood – debuting at number two at the UK box office.

So when we spoke to him about his new ITV thriller The Level, we couldn’t resist asking… would he consider returning to the TARDIS to make his TV directing debut?

“If they asked me, then it would be a consideration,” he told us, before adding: “But they haven’t asked me, so I’m not considering it!”

Fair enough – but Clarke told us he’s absolutely keen to work behind-the-scenes on TV again after writing a 2006 episode of Torchwood and the 2008 TV pilot West 10 LDN.

“Films are hard to set up and hard to get done,” he said. “But TV shows are equally hard in a different way.

“You’ve got to go through broadcasters, they have to work out whether the show’s right for their audience. If anything, it’s now becoming easier because you have Amazon and Netflix and they just want content. Their thing is, ‘It’s right for someone, so if we like it, we’ll do it’.

“But with the main broadcasters, certain shows don’t work for certain networks, so it is pretty tough. But we’ve got TV shows on our slate.”

Clarke plays “lone wolf” cop Gunner Martin in The Level, beginning Friday (September 30) at 9pm on ITV.