As Doctor Who, Christopher Eccleston's fight against intergalactic foes captivated millions.
In real life, the star was in a battle with anorexia and depression that almost drove him to suicide.
The actor, who won acclaim for reinventing the Time Lord for a new generation of fans in 2005, has revealed he was struggling with serious mental illness during the making of the sci-fi series.
The father-of-two reveals his anorexia was prevalent during his spell on the BBC drama. Eccleston says he was diagnosed with severe clinical depression following the breakdown of his marriage to Mischka, 20 years his junior
In his forthcoming autobiography, I Love The Bones Of You, Eccleston describes himself as 'a lifelong body-hater' and reveals he contemplated throwing himself under a train following the end of his marriage in 2015.
'Many times I've wanted to reveal that I'm a lifelong anorexic and dysmorphic,' he writes.
'I never have. I always thought of it as a filthy secret, because I'm Northern, because I'm male and because I'm working-class.'
The father-of-two reveals his anorexia was prevalent during his spell on the BBC drama, adding: 'The illness is still there raging within me as the Doctor. People love the way I look in that series, but I was very ill. The reward for that illness was the part. And therein lies the perpetuation of the whole sorry situation.'
Eccleston says he was diagnosed with severe clinical depression following the breakdown of his marriage to Mischka, 20 years his junior.
Eccleston won acclaim for reinventing the Time Lord for a new generation of fans in 2005, has revealed he was struggling with serious mental illness during the making of the sci-fi series
During filming of the BBC drama The A Word, Eccleston says he began to contemplate suicide and rang a psychiatric hospital for help.
He says: 'I was in a state of extreme anxiety, convinced I was either going to die or I was going to kill myself. In my despair I reached for my phone and looked up a psychiatric hospital, I rang ahead, grabbed my bag and ran.'
While lying awake in hospital, the star became convinced he was going to die: 'I was 100 per cent sure I was in the last few weeks of my life.'
His road to recovery began when he was finally diagnosed with severe clinical depression and prescribed antidepressants.
'I am on them to this day. I could be on them for the rest of my days. I do have an issue with that. I would like to attempt slowly to reduce the dose, to experience reality again, to see how I do… And yet, interestingly I have received some of the best reviews of my life since I started taking them.'
I Love The Bones Of You, by Christopher Eccleston, is published by Simon & Schuster on September 19, priced £20.
Dr Who visits Lake District cafe
A CAFE has become a popular spot this week following a recent visit from a famous British actor.
Green's Grasmere, a bistro located in the beautiful village of Grasmere, received a surprise visit from Dr Who actor, Christopher Eccleston.
The TV crew understood to be filming the ITV new series The A Word had been visiting the cafe regularly to stock up on coffee and delightful treats.
Front of House Manager, Ryan Smales, told the Westmorland Gazette that they were just finishing up for the day when the Gone In 60 Seconds actor walked in.
"The film crew had been in the cafe all day," he said
"And as soon as Christopher Eccleston walked in I knew right away who he was. He was just a normal genuine guy, a northern lad like myself.
"We spoke about the filming and what his next plans are."
The A Word, which has returned for a third series, has begun filming across the Lake District this month.
Coronation Street star Julie Hesmondhalgh is set to join the cast of the show which follows a family hit by unexpected news when son Joe is diagnosed with autism.
The show will pick up two years on from the end of the second series, where things have significantly changed for the Hughes family. Joe is now 10 and living in two places at once, processing the major changes in his life through the filter of his autism.
Meanwhile, Alison and Paul are divorced and live 100 miles apart. It's only Maurice who is holding things together, which isn't a good sign for the family.
As well as Hesmondhalgh, the regular cast members will also be joined by Sarah Gordy, Call The Midwife, Holby City, and David Gyasi, Interstellar.
If you know a teenager taking GCSEs this year, then 'out out damn spot' will be a line they're pretty familiar with.
Shakespeare's Scottish Play has been taught in schools for decades and it doesn't get any easier.
So what better way to bring Macbeth to life than with some tips from one of our favourite actors.
Christopher Eccleston was back in his home town of Salford to share his love of Shakespeare at the Buile Hill Academy in Eccles.
And at the front of the class, taking notes was our entertainment correspondent Caroline Whitmore:
Video on the ITV website:
https://www.itv.com/news/granada/2019-03-15/back-to-his-salford-roots-christopher-eccleston-turns-gcse-teacher-to-spread-the-word-of-the-bard/
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Someone like me would not come through anymore
For financial and political reasons, people like me are not wanted in the arts anymore
The book is an anthem for our times and it is wonderful that it is set in the North. I think what UCLan Publishing is doing, especially in improving regional diversity, is amazing and I was very glad to give my time for this cause.
Award-winning actor lends his support to Preston-based ghostly thriller published by UCLan Publishing
Actor Christopher Eccleston is helping to bring the supernatural thriller book Cold Bath Street to life by narrating the novel's audiobook.
The award-winning actor who has appeared in a variety of British television dramas, including playing Doctor Who, has voiced the book written by New York Times best-selling author and Preston-born AJ Hartley, which is published by the University of Central Lancashire's (UCLan) own publishing house.
It marks another milestone for Cold Bath Street, which is set around the Miley Tunnels that lie under Preston and are supposedly haunted, after it was nominated for one of the most prestigious children's book prizes in the world, the Carnegie Medal, last November. The book was edited, project-managed, designed and produced by students on UCLan's MA Publishing course in the only student-led, student-run publishing house in the world, UCLan Publishing.
Christopher said: "Cold Bath Street is just a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant book. I was so happy to narrate the audiobook because I think Andrew's writing is superb. The book is an anthem for our times and it is wonderful that it is set in the North. I think what UCLan Publishing is doing, especially in improving regional diversity, is amazing and I was very glad to give my time for this cause."
The book is an anthem for our times and it is wonderful that it is set in the North. I think what UCLan Publishing is doing, especially in improving regional diversity, is amazing and I was very glad to give my time for this cause.
Christopher got involved in the Cold Bath Street project after playing Macbeth in Stratford-upon-Avon for the Royal Shakespeare Company and it was pointed out to him that the play draws many parallels with Cold Bath Street with themes of supernatural, ghosts and death.
In an interview with The Bookseller, Christopher said: "We did an event where Andrew [Hartley] talked about his book and his notion of the supernatural, and I spoke about playing Macbeth and my notions of the supernatural. It helps that the book is set in Preston, Lancashire, and I'm from Salford in Lancashire. We're from a very similar generation. We seem to have an odd understanding of each other."
The Cold Bath Street audiobook will be launched at the prestigious London Book Fair on the 11 March with an audiobook panel event fronted by AJ Hartley, Christopher Eccleston and UCLan Associate Professor of Publishing and Head of the Publishing House Debbie Williams.
Debbie said: "This is another exciting development for Cold Bath Street and I want to thank Christopher for lending his support to a book that's really put Preston and UCLan Publishing on the map. We're a small publishing company competing against huge, well-established publishing houses and the success that we've experienced with Cold Bath Street has been phenomenal."
Following the success of Cold Bath Street, AJ is already working on a sequel, due to be published in October, called Written Stone Lane that based on a ghost myth around the Written Stone near Longridge in the Ribble Valley.
UCLan Publishing is also working with AJ on another children's book, Monsters in the Mirror, due to be published on the 1 March and available for pre-order on Amazon. An author event with AJ to promote the book will take place at Preston Waterstones at 2.00pm on Saturday 9 March.
