Christopher Eccleston in conversation with Paterson Joseph

One of Britain’s best-loved actors and star of Our Friends in the North and Dr Who Christopher Eccleston talks about his life and acting career in conversation with the Chancellor of Brookes University and fellow actor Paterson Joseph.

Eccleston was born into a working-class family in Salford and strongly identifies with his roots. He has often spoken about a feeling that his northern accent and background held him back.  Eccleston’s early roles included as a teenage convict in the 1991 drama, Let Him Have It, and as DCI Bilborough in the crime drama Cracker. His big breakthrough came in the role of left-wing activist Nicky Hutchinson in the award-winning BBC drama Our Friends in the North. His film work includes the title role in Jude, based on the Thomas Hardy novel, and roles in 24 Hour party People and 28 Days Later. In 2005, he became the ninth incarnation of Dr Who in the opening series of the BBC revival of the science fiction programme, where he spoke with his natural northern accent. The role won him the Most Popular Actor award at that year’s National Television Awards. Eccleston’s awards also include an International Emmy for Accused and Best Actor in the Broadcast Press Guild Awards for Our Friends in the North. He is author of I Love the Bones of You: My Father and the Making of Me, a portrait of the relationship with his father Ronnie that he says shaped his entire career.

Paterson Joseph has starred in recent television series including Vigil, Noughts and Crosses and Boat Story and in the 2023 film Wonka. His recent debut historical novel, The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho, was based on the true story of the man born on a slave ship who went on to be a writer, leading abolitionist and one of the first people of African descent to vote in a British parliamentary election.