A place to update visitors with the latest news and information about Christopher Eccleston and his work and also to inform visitors about any updates/additions to my Chris related website.
As a means of bringing joy and creativity into homes during these uncertain times, the Rose is launching the 'Readings from the Rose' initiative today.
Several prominent actors and creatives in the industry have filmed themselves reading their favourite poems and the Rose will be releasing one reading every day at 1pm across 14 days.
These readings can be accessed by anyone completely free of charge on the Rose's YouTube and Instagram channels, in the hope that they will bring some light entertainment to audiences while theatres are dark.
Christopher Haydon, Artistic Director at the Rose said:
I am thrilled about the launch of 'Readings from the Rose'. We have a wealth of talent lined up and I am so excited for audiences to enjoy these readings. I want to thank all those who filmed themselves for contributing to the initiative and providing a good news story in amongst all this uncertainty."
Those currently reading for the Rose include: Adjoa Andoh, Angellica Bell, Anjana Vasan, Anton Lesser, Arthur Darvill, Christopher Eccleston, Hattie Morahan, Jane Asher, Louise Brealey, Niamh Cusack, Olivia Vinall, Paterson Joseph, Paul Higgins, Pippa Bennett-Warner and Stephen Boxer.
The readings will include works from the following writers: A. A. Milne, A. E. Housman, Angela Morgan, Anna Kamienska, D. H. Lawrence, Hillaire Belloc, John Cooper Clarke, John Keats, Mark Halliday, Miroslav Holub, Paterson Joseph, W. B. Yeats and William Shakespeare.
The poem readings will be uploaded to this page as they are released.
Christopher Eccleston has said that the BBC One series The A Word has "connected" him to the public.
The drama tells the story of a family who have a son who has autism.
The actor said that the programme resonates with viewers as most people have experience of autism in some way
Eccleston, who plays Maurice Scott in the series, said: "Whenever people stop me, they ask about The A Word, and when I tell when we're doing a third series, it's a really joyous reaction.
"This programme has connected me with the public like no other, because everybody seems to be touched in some way by autism or Down's syndrome.
"I do think that people are going to be watching it in lockdown, and it's about families and families being on top of each other and in each other's lives.
"It will be quite an interesting reaction."
(Ian West/PA)
The A Word is set to return to TV screens for a third series.
Eccleston said he did not have any reservations about returning to the show.
He said: "We've got a large proportion of the crew from the first series coming back and I would suggest one of the main reasons they come back is because of the scripts.
(Dominic Lipinkski/PA)
"They've invested in the family, as though they're a family themselves."
The BBC has announced further programming for its "Culture in Quarantine" scheme to run while arts venues are locked down.
The company will broadcast six of the RSC's recent productions on BBC Four and BBC iPlayer:
Macbeth with Christopher Eccleston and Niamh Cusack Othello with Hugh Quarshie in the title role and Lucian Msamati as Iago Romeo and Juliet with Bally Gill as Romeo and Karen Fishwick as Juliet The Merchant of Venice with Makram J Khoury as Shylock Much Ado About Nothing with Edward Bennett as Benedick and Michelle Terry as Beatrice Hamlet with Paapa Essiedu in the title role
As formerly announced, the BBC will also collaborate with The Space to present new filmed recordings of Mike Bartlett's Albion, Emma Rice's Wise Children and Battersea Arts Centre's Frankenstein, as well as BalletBoyz's new piece Deluxe. On top of this, Russell T Davies' TV version of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Anthony Hopkins' King Lear will be repeated.
David Greig's new play Adventures With The Painted People, set 2000 years ago in Pitlochry, will premiere on BBC Radio 3. Bryony Kimmings will investigate the relationship between opera and motherhood in Opera Mums, while Margaret Atwood and Mary Beard will present a new puppetry show created by Atwood in response to an Edgar Allan Poe tale.
FORMER Doctor Who star Christopher Eccleston has launched a blistering attack on the BBC over the circumstances which caused him to quit the show after just one series.
The outspoken actor chose his appearance at a Doctor Who convention in Los Angeles to break a long silence on his sharp exit from the Tardis in 2005.
He told fans: "A lot of **** went down because of the BBC. The politics on the show were horrendous."
"It went wrong pretty quickly. My relationship with Russell T Davies and the other producers fell apart during recording of the first block of episodes."
The 56-year-old star said meeting adoring fans at conventions like this one in California was cathartic. "I've felt a huge amount of love. It's helped me get over the BBC ******** , like the BBC inventing a quote on my behalf." He was believed to be referring to a statement saying he left the show because of fears of being typecast which the BBC later admitted was falsely attributed and released without his permission.
The actor's Los Angeles address to the fans was full of praise for co-star Billie Piper, saying: "Billie was terrified at first but she turned out to be the best actor on Doctorwho."
He was less forthcoming about another of his castmates, John Barrowman, saying of him: "No comment.we'll move swiftly on."
Christopher admitted his approach did not gel with some of the upper management in the BBC'S Doctorwho team.
"I know I wasn't first choice for the role. Hugh Grant turned it down and
Bill Nighy turned it down. At the first script read-through we all had to introduce ourselves. I said, 'Hello, I'm Bill Nighy and I'm playing the Doctor.' It didn't go down well. A BBC executive was seen to leave the room." Christopher said he always had faith in the revived show being the big hit it turned out to be but that faith was not always shared in the executive corridors of the corporation. He said: "The BBC don't really know if anything's good until it's good but I had confidence because I'd worked with Russell T Davies before on The Second Coming and I've based my entire TV career on working with strong writers."
He said one of his proudest achievements was using his own Salford accent to play the Time Lord. When Billie Piper's character Rose Tyler asks his alien character in one episode why he sounds like a northerner, his Doctor replies: "Every planet has a north."
The star continued: "I couldn't relate to the other Doctors because they all sounded like BBC newsreaders. And, previously, the Doctor had always been more foppish and bohemian. If you grow up in Britain you cannot escape the disease of class, the idea that working-class people can never be intellectual or have a poetic sensibility."
But some things are changing and he is thrilled that the Tardis is now occupied by Jodie Whittaker, a woman and a fellow northerner. "My son Albert and daughter Esme are growing up in a world where the Doctor can be a woman and that's great," he said.
