Board Thread:The Panopticon/@comment-4028641-20151008023030/@comment-6032121-20191107181340

No, that was a common assumption back when, but since then, more behind-the-scenes information and photographs came out, and as it turns out the supposed resemblance to Ainley is very superficial (basically just the cut of the beard).

Different costume, different face, the "glowing eyes" look nothing like they did in Survival and so are unlikely to be meant to be the same thing… and in his cut opening monologue, Tipple didn't sound even remotely like Ainley.

So between all that and the fact that there's little in-universe room for it to be Ainley, I think we can consider this particular myth to be soundly refuted.

I also seem to recall Ainley saying that, far from being unavailable, he would have loved to return, but was simply never asked to do so.