CHRISTOPHER ECCLESTON
NINE LIVES
THE NINTH DOCTOR OFFERS YOU THE GIFT OF AIR FROM HIS LUNGS AS CHRISTOPHER ECCLESTON RETURNS TO THE WORLD OF DOCTOR WHO IN A SERIES OF NEW AUDIO ADVENTURES
WORDS: DARREN SCOTT
PICTURES © BIG FINISH, BBC
AN AUDIENCE WITH Christopher Eccleston is rare. And while this writer has enjoyed being in the audience for many of Eccleston’s stage and screen performances, there’s one role in particular that will stay with the actor forever Which makes it all the more exciting when he grants SFX an extremely rare interview to talk about it.
We are, obviously, referring to Dougal Siepp in The League Of Gentlemen. Nah, not really – it’s Doctor bloody Who.
Sixteen years since he led the revival of the BBC’s biggest sci-fi show, Eccleston is once more stepping on board the TARDIS, in a series of adventures that fans never thought would happen.
He’s not one to speak to the press often – unless there’s a project he’s passionate about, and even then it’s on the understanding that it’s about this project only. So it’s fortunate for all concerned that Eccleston has nothing but praise for the team at Big Finish. And who can blame him? They’ve been making Doctor Who audio dramas – and a great many others besides – since 1999. But it’s fair to say they broke the internet, or certainly their own website, when they announced the return of Christopher Eccleston to the role of the Ninth Doctor last year.
BLAST FROM THE PAST
The excitement should come as little surprise. It is, after all, one of those roles that stays with an actor forever – something he didn’t consider when offered the part in 2004.
“I didn’t overthink that,” he offers. “By the time I played the Doctor I had been acting professionally for 20 years. I’d achieved quite a level of recognition with things like Our Friends In The North, Let Him Have It, Jude, Shallow Grave. So I was really used to that public figure aspect of it. Particularly in Britain – you go to other countries, [but] it’s in Britain where, [for] the Doctor, they get really feverish.
“So it wasn’t that much of an adjustment for me really, I was kind of used to it. What was nice about it was, having always acted for adults with Our Friends and Cracker and things like that, was to connect me to a younger audience. That was one of the reasons I went for the role, to make something that did not patronise a younger audience… that appealed, because we know children are far, far more intelligent than adults. So I wanted to act for the more discerning audience.”