The Doctors Who's Who (21 page)

‘As swiftly and silently as a shadow, Doctor Who’s Space and Time ship,
TARDIS
, appeared on a succession of planets each as different as the pebbles on a beach, stayed awhile and then vanished, as mysteriously as it had come. And whatever alien world it was that received him and his fellow travellers, and however well or badly they were treated, the Doctor always set things to rights…’

From the Prologue to
Doctor Who and the Crusaders

David Whitaker

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHRISTOPHER ECCLESTON

‘What a piece of work is man.’

Hamlet
 
William Shakespeare

CHRISTOPHER ECCLESTON
and Billie Piper are responsible for bringing
Doctor Who
back in the new millennium and making it a household name all over again.

It seems, in retrospect, that Eccleston was given a hard time for not sticking to the show for longer than an introductory year. Rumour has it that he only signed a one-year contract, but it is clear that he would have been offered a renewal due to the popularity of the programme.

Eccleston told
Doctor Who
Magazine
that he emailed Russell T. Davies upon hearing that the show was making a comeback, and he wanted to be considered for the main role because of Davies’s involvement. But what happened during that first year for him to suddenly change his mind? It surely wasn’t the pressure of work; Eccleston was an experienced actor. Could it have been a slight fear of the love, adoration and
total euphoria of the legions of
Doctor Who
fans? Eccleston wasn’t a SF fan, he was a level-headed Northerner who played football and hung out with the lads while growing up. He didn’t know about the intensity of the so-called
Doctor Who
anoraks (the ‘Whovians’), particularly those fans – both new and old – who would be overwhelmed by the show’s reinvention and his interpretation of the leading role.

Eccleston has been given a hard time by the fans who consider him a ‘lightweight’ (a phrase used by one of the ex-Doctors in my presence on hearing that he had quit) for leaving without much of an explanation. His track record was impressive and he certainly had enough quality work behind him not to be swallowed up and typecast by the show.

There was an element of Jon Pertwee about his interpretation of the Doctor: he could be deadly serious, he could get angry, but he could also be warm-hearted and amusing. Eccleston brought the action back into the show, something I’m sure Paul McGann would have done, if given the chance.

Eccleston’s Doctor provided a blueprint that David Tennant would build upon. He introduced the programme to a whole new generation. Yes, those children would shout ‘Exterminate’ in the playground, but they would also chant ‘Mummmmmmyyyy, are you my mummy?’ Some of the scares the new show had to offer were just as terrifying as those memorable scenes from the original series. And older fans still enjoyed the programme. What really worked for them was the faithful blue police box – the TARDIS, a more sinister version of what was recognisably the same old theme tune, and, most importantly, the Time Lord with two hearts and more love and compassion for the human race than any other alien in SF history.

Again, like Pertwee, many of Eccleston’s stories centred round the Earth but, unlike Pertwee, he had to deal with modern girls and modern families, resulting in more than one amusing ‘domestic’ incident. So was the Doctor romantically linked again? The Doctor actually dances with Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) and we appreciate that she is in love with him; but that love is, as ever, strained and unfulfilled. It’s Jo Grant all over again, but this time the Doctor doesn’t drive off in Bessie. He stands his ground; he lets the relationship move on until, during the era of David Tennant’s Doctor, he loses her and has his heart – or hearts – broken by their parting (‘The Parting of the Ways’).

There has been much to learn about the Doctor emotionally since the programme came back. The return of Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) during the Tennant years was a bittersweet moment. She admits that she has been in love with him and has waited for his return. She tells him that she thought he had died, and he delivers the killer blow, saying that he had lived and everybody else had died. And there lay the loneliness of the Doctor, the doomed romantic that he is. The Time Lord who wants a relationship with a human woman but knows it cannot happen, knows that it wouldn’t last long, because she wouldn’t live as long as him (echoes of
Highlander
here). And so it seems the Doctor simply breaks the hearts of many an adventurous woman on his travels. It is part of his curse. So suddenly we understand more about the Doctor on an emotional level; in fact, more than we came to realise throughout the whole of the original series. Put the CGI and other great things about the new show to one side, and look at the emotions that have streamed out of the TARDIS doors since its comeback.

The Doctor has disciples nowadays, a group of eclectic
companions who follow him religiously. It’s not just the odd companion that comes and goes; it’s a group of people who come in and out of his life to join his clan, to dance to his merry tune. The Doctor is still the Pied Piper, his cave – the TARDIS into which no one apart from the initiated can follow – is still the doorway that leads to the land of magical dreams. When Eccleston poked his head back out of the TARDIS door at the end of the first episode and asked Rose Tyler if she was coming with him, she instantly ran straight in to be transported to another world from which she might never have returned, so powerful is the Doctor’s charm.

It was Christopher Eccleston who started the ball rolling with the new series of
Doctor Who
. He was the next generation William Hartnell, a man of mystery all over again – an intergalactic loner with no home planet, but on a gallant crusade to rid the universe of evil.

With such an attractive Doctor at the helm of the TARDIS, a lot of women swooned, just as they would again when David Tennant took over for his four-year stint. But with only one solitary year as the Doctor, did the show have any impact on Eccleston’s career, or him personally? Possibly not. He found work immediately after
Doctor Who
and with equal plaudits. Christopher Eccleston could perhaps be described as a jobbing actor and one who will turn his hand to a wide variety of roles. Where his predecessor would find it difficult to let go, he didn’t. He was professional enough to stand back and say, ‘I’ve done enough.’ So how did it all start for Eccleston, and how has his career developed over the years?

Christopher Eccleston was born on 16 February 1964 in Little Hulton, near Salford, Lancashire. He was educated at Salford Technical College and, by his own admission, was not a model student, being too much in love with
Manchester United Football Club and television to take his studies seriously.

At the age of 19, he had to make a decision: either continue with the football, at which he wasn’t exactly brilliant, or take his acting seriously.

Inspired by BBC2’s drama
The Boys from the Blackstuff
, Eccleston went on to train at the Central School of Speech and Drama. He wanted to pursue his love of gritty roles centred round the Midlands and North of England (
Kes,
and
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
being good examples). However, it was Shakespeare and Chekhov that he worked at first, the staple of any serious future acting career.

At the age of 25, Eccleston joined the Bristol Old Vic for
A Streetcar Named Desire
. This was perfect casting for him, and his confidence grew as he went on to perform in several other plays around that time.

Like his
Doctor Who
predecessor Tom Baker, Eccleston found some periods of unemployment and worked on a building site to earn his money, but his big break came in 1991 when he took the lead in the film
Let Him Have It
. He played Derek Bentley, a slow-witted guy who falls in with a group of small-time criminals.

The film is based upon a true story and details how Bentley was hanged (28 January 1953) for a crime he didn’t commit. Bentley was held by a policeman after an abortive break-in and called out to his 16-year-old friend Chris Craig, ‘Let him have it,’ meaning that Craig should surrender the gun he was carrying. Craig apparently read this request the wrong way, believing that Bentley had asked him to kill the policeman, which he duly did. Craig was imprisoned while the unarmed 19-year-old, Bentley, was hanged.

Eccleston plays Bentley wonderfully, showcasing the young
man’s goodness and innocence against a society that had no time for him.

Shortly before being hanged, Bentley dictates a letter to his guard (Michael Elphick). Eccleston shows through the despair of the character, how simple and inexperienced of life’s horrors Bentley really was. The guard knows this, praising Bentley for his letter, which the doomed man just manages to sign at the bottom.

Let Him Have It
is a powerful and poignant story. Although Bentley has now been officially pardoned (his case had a radical influence on the British legal system), the film serves as a testament to the different levels of influence and corruption within the criminal and judicial world and why hanging wasn’t always – or shouldn’t have been – the answer.

Eccleston’s next career highlight was
Shallow Grave
(1994). This was his first project with director Danny Boyle, his second being
28 Days Later
(2002).

Shallow Grave
would be Ewan McGregor’s first film. Eccleston plays an accountant called David and the role shows clearly that he can be something other than rough and ready. It was a good ‘growing’ film for him as an actor – but the best was yet to come.

Later the same year, he took the part of Nicholas ‘Nicky’ Hutchinson in the BBC drama
Our Friends in the North
(1996). Over nine weeks, Eccleston gave a performance second to none, working alongside Daniel Craig, Malcolm McDowell, Gina McKee and Larry Lamb in a landmark in 1990s television.

Our Friends in the North
had the public divided. Some people thought the series was contrived and patronising, while others saw it as inspired and a pastiche of modern-day Britain. Perhaps the series was too honest, perhaps it hit home too
much, exposing the hurt felt in certain parts of Britain which the general viewer didn’t want to acknowledge. Eccleston certainly believed in his part and played his extremist and egotistical role to the hilt, which leaves a bitter taste – and rightly so.

Hard-hitting roles suddenly became Eccleston’s staple, none more so than in
Hillsborough
(1996) and
The Second Coming
(2003).

Hillsborough
is Jimmy McGovern with his heart on his sleeve. Sometimes he can lose direction, but not so here. Eccleston took his part well. You don’t have to be a fan of Liverpool Football Club – or even a football fan – to feel the weight of the terrible tragedy that took place at Hillsborough in that FA Cup semi-final.

Hillsborough
was proof – if proof were needed – that current tragedies could be dramatised without facing public outcry. There was a genuine need by society to understand what had happened at that football match and to ensure that it never happened again. Eccleston likes being involved with high drama, and also with important dramas depicting real-life issues that shaped the society we live in today.

Let Him Have It
was the first time we saw this,
Hillsborough
a worthy second. After that dreadful day, fences were taken down at football matches and crowds respected the decision, bringing a greater awareness and responsibility to the game of football – a game Christopher Eccleston once considered as a career. Yes, this dramatisation meant much to him, and it clearly showed in his powerful performance.

The Second Coming
(2003) was written by Russell T. Davies, and the writer/producer would come to fully appreciate Eccleston’s skills as an actor by the end of it. The story follows the story of Steven Baxter (Eccleston), an ordinary Northern
man, and how he comes to realise that he is the son of God and full of the power of miracles – but is the modern world ready for him?

Shown over two episodes on ITV (after being turned down by Channel 4 and the BBC), it provided a rare taste of pure serial quality.
The Second Coming
is a perfect representation of how the modern world couldn’t cope with the reality of Jesus Christ being something other than just part of an ancient faith. Where society demands answers in the modern world Steven Baxter had none to give. This provoked extra suspicion and hatred by those who didn’t believe or, conversely, those who believed too much. Baxter is unsure if what he is doing is right. He doesn’t understand what
he
should be doing, let alone anyone else around him; he is an uncertain Christ figure.

The Second Coming
questioned the need for religion in the modern world. It highlighted its importance to different people and therefore its ability to cause conflict, war and death on a huge scale. The series was stark and gritty in its basic message and provided the sound base that Eccleston and Russell T. Davies would build on with the return of
Doctor Who
.

In 2001, Eccleston appeared alongside Nicole Kidman in
The Others
. Directed by Alejandro Amenábar, this chilling ghost story of a mother-of-two’s realisation that her house is haunted is both intriguing and captivating.

Grace (Kidman) has plenty of psychological baggage to endure inside her unsettling house, and the return of her husband (Eccleston) from the Second World War compounds that. Then she finds that her daughter Anne has been conversing with the dead.