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.
Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor will encounter some old friends and foes in the forthcoming volumes of Big Finish's Doctor Who – The Ninth Doctor Adventures.
Following the exclusive premiere of the first trailer of the series (see below), today we can reveal that the Ninth Doctor will soon face off against one of his greatest enemies – the terrifying Cybermen, as voiced by Nicholas Briggs.
The final episode of volume three, due for release in November 2021, features one of the menacing Mondasian monsters on the set of Fritz Lang's celebrated 1927 motion picture, Metropolis.
Writer John Dorney said: "I know everyone was very keen for the Ninth Doctor to have an encounter with the Cybermen, and as they were the only Doctor and monster I hadn't written for at Big Finish, I was very keen to be the one to write it! It was a real honour getting to script their meeting... particularly as it gave me the chance to dive into my love for the movies and write a bit of a celebrity historical."
Then, in volume four, due for release in February 2022, the Doctor is reunited with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, as played by Jon Culshaw, in an adventure that takes the Time Lord to the Firth of Forth.
Writer Roy Gill said: "The Brigadier is an iconic character from the Classic Series, whereas the Ninth Doctor arrives at the very forefront of the New Series. They may initially seem very different, but there's an interesting connection: both forthright and deeply decent, they've been through conflict and are still fighting for what's right... It was a privilege to write their first meeting for Big Finish."
Producer David Richardson added: "It's been so enjoyable creating a whole new era for the Ninth Doctor, and I think the scripts really succeed in defining that bold new start. We are talking the Ninth Doctor pre-Rose. These are the adventures some time after his regeneration, travelling alone, starting to discover himself after all that time being the War Doctor."
Doctor Who fans worldwide can now pre-order all four volumes of The Ninth Doctor Adventures, which are available in three formats – collector's edition CD, digital download or limited edition gatefold triple LP vinyl – HERE!
Housmans Bookshop is to release a free playback of two online events featuring actors Christopher Eccleston and Maxine Peake reading stories published by Comma Press.
Ealier this month, the bookshop and press collaborated to host the events with the actors reading from protest-inspired stories published in Comma's History-into-Fiction series, Protest and Resist.
The two events took place on the 9th and 10th February and were followed by conversations between two of the books' authors, Martyn Bedford and Maggie Gee, and historians Sally Alexander and David Waddington. In total, 191 tickets were sold and 140 viewers tuned in to watch Christopher Eccleston's reading, while 330 tickets were sold and 250 viewers tuned in to the event with Maxine Peake. The events made £963 in ticket sales and £1,662 in gross book sales.
Eccleston's event will be available via Housmans Bookshop YouTube channel from the 27th February, and his reading will be available from the 1st March. Maxine Peake's event will be available from the 2nd March and her reading from the 3rd March.
Cristina Ríos, co-manager of Housmans Bookshop, said: "We were really honoured to have Christopher and Maxine, two fantastic British actors, donate their time and talent to raise the profile of Housmans and by extension that of radical bookselling and publishing at such a tricky time. We have had enthusiastic feedback from the audience and are pleased to have many new customers who discovered Housmans and its long history as a radical bookshop through these events. The proceeds from ticket and book sales also gave the shop a very welcome boost.
"This event is just another example of how indie publishers and bookshops can come together to support one another during tough times. It was a pleasure to collaborate with Comma Press yet again and we look forward to many more joint projects in the future."
Becca Parkinson, engagement manager at Comma, added: "We are incredibly grateful to our patron Maxine Peake, Christopher Eccleston, our authors Martyn Bedford and Maggie Gee and their historical consultants Sally Alexander and David Waddington, for giving up their precious time to take part in this event and making it such a huge success. We feel it is absolutely essential to the publishing ecosystem that indie presses and bookshops support each other. Housmans have always been a huge supporter of our titles and events, and so we wanted to work with them to organise an event that would give the shop a much-needed boost at a tricky time for them and other indie bookshops who've had to close their doors due to the ongoing pandemic.
"It's been great to see such enthusiasm too for our protest anthology, which was first published back in 2017, but thanks to these events has come to the attention of new readers."
A darkly comic and heart-warming drama about a man learning to live with himself and with his voices. By award-winning writer, Christine Entwisle.
Starring Christopher Eccleston.
Barnaby's a voice hearer. When he meets a friendly neighbour they begin to bond over the birds that visit their block of flats.
Charmed by their burgeoning friendship, Barnaby hits crisis point with his voices who want to keep him in all to themselves...
Christine Entwisle became involved with voice hearers after working with MIND HUB in Islington where she created an artistic response to the experience of their service users. She went on to develop her work with voice hearers at the National Theatre Studio. She's grateful to the incredible generosity of all the voice hearers who have spoken to her about their experience, and in particular to Open Dialogue Practitioner Rachel Waddingham.
A diagnosis of voice hearing has long been stigmatised in western culture, but in recent years there's been a new approach that helps hearers to understand who their voices are and where they come from. Murmuration is about a man who has struggled to live a happy life because of his diagnosis, finding a new and more hopeful way to live within himself and his voices.
The digital streaming service BroadwayHD has partnered with the Royal Shakespeare Company to allow global audiences to watch Shakespeare plays. So far, nine titles have been added to the service, with further RSC productions being added in the coming months.
Speaking about the collaboration, Royal Shakespeare Company artistic director Gregory Doran said: "Nothing can replace the experience of seeing a play live on stage. But with our theatres currently closed, and all of us spending much more time at home, we are delighted to be working with BroadwayHD to give audiences around the world the chance to experience RSC productions from home… Shakespeare speaks to us unlike any other writer, and this partnership with BroadwayHD will enable even more people to enjoy his work, bringing us together virtually at a time when many of us will be apart."
Based in Stratford-upon-Avon, the home of William Shakespeare, the Royal Shakespeare Company stage the Bard's productions as well as innovative, new works. Some of the finest British actors have been seen in RSC shows, and their performances can be enjoyed on BroadwayHD. Royal Shakespeare Company titles available to stream include:
Antony and Cleopatra: Performed in 2017, Josette Simon and Antony Byrne play the title lovers. The producton was performed in Stratford-upon-Avon and at London's Barbican.
Hamlet: Simon Godwin directs Paapa Essiedu in this 2016 revival, which he then reprised for a national tour and in Washington DC.
King Lear: Gregory Doran directs Antony Sher in the RSC's 2016 production, which was later filmed and streamed in cinemas worldwide.
Love's Labour's Lost: Staged as part of a double-bill with Much Ado About Nothing, this 2014 adaptation saw Shakespeare's play set before World War One.
Macbeth: Christopher Eccleston plays the eponymous Scottish general in a 2018 production, directed by Polly Findlay. Niamh Cusack stars as Lady Macbeth.
Measure for Measure: Gregory Doran directs a 2019 adaptation, incorporating the #MeToo movement into a story first told over 400 years ago.
The Merry Wives of Windsor: Fiona Laird directs a 2018 production, offering a modern take on Falstaff attempting to woo women.
Timon of Athens: Kathryn Hunter played Timon in a gender-reversed adaptation, first seen in 2018.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona: Simon Godwin directs this 2014 production, which was contemporarily adapted, including characters wearing modern dress.
As well as Shakespeare plays, a range of shows are available to watch on BroadwayHD. It's just one of multiple streaming services theatregoers can use.
Fantastic! Finally, we have the first details for Christopher Eccleston's first foray into Doctor Who audio drama! Cover artwork and story titles for the first volume of Big Finish Doctor Who – The Ninth Doctor Adventures starring the man who brought the TARDIS back to television were unveiled today.
Due for release in May 2021, Doctor Who – The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Ravagers is a full-cast audio drama box set comprising three fantastic stories all written by Big Finish's creative director, Nicholas Briggs.
Joining Christopher Eccleston on his first audio odyssey through time and space are Camilla Beeput as Nova, a galley chef from the Sphere of Freedom enlisted by the Doctor to stop a dastardly plan, and Jayne McKenna as Audrey, the oldest gamer in Freedom City (although there may be more to her than meets the eye).
Doctor Who – The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Ravagers is now available for pre-order; the stories included in this first volume are:
"Sphere of Freedom"
"Cataclysm"
"Food Fight"
Christopher Eccleston said in a statement: "It was lovely coming back to play the role again, due to Nicholas's writing. I was surprised at how very quickly I seemed to recall the choices I made fifteen years ago. It was an odd experience; the Ninth Doctor's still hanging around."
"It's been an honor working with Chris again – it's truly thrilling to hear him in studio, inhabiting the Ninth Doctor like he'd never been away!" said Nicholas Briggs, "Writing and directing Doctor Who stories never gets old for me, and I'm so excited for people to hear what we've been up to.
"It's been a delight to kick off The Ninth Doctor Adventures series with Chris, and I know that my fellow writers and directors are cooking up some great stuff for the next box set."
Doctor Who fans worldwide can now pre-order all four volumes of The Ninth Doctor Adventures, which are available in three formats – collector's edition CD, digital download or limited edition gatefold triple LP vinyl – exclusively from the Big Finish website. Doctor Who – The Ninth Doctor Adventures triple LP vinyls are strictly limited to a pressing of 1,000 per volume, and can be pre-ordered individually or in a bundle comprising all four albums. Big Finish says these vinyl editions do not include any behind-the-scenes extras.
The company has been producing Doctor Who audios since 1999, starring Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, David Tennant and John Hurt, as well as a vast universe of spinoffs.
The news that Ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston was returning for a new series of Big Finish audio adventures was met with tremendous enthusiasm earlier this year, and with production on the comeback now underway the excitement has been dialled up further.
Now, in a brand new interview on the Big Finish podcast, the popular actor has revealed just how excited he is about reprising the role – 15 years after he last played the iconic Time Lord in the first series of the revived show.
Speaking to Doctor Who's voice of the Daleks Nicholas Briggs, who is an Executive Producer at Big Finish and has also written scripts for the new stories, Eccleston revealed that his return had been "seamless" thus far.
Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor in Doctor Who (BBC)
"I really enjoyed playing him again," he said. "He was always a joy to play, somebody with that amount of optimism, enthusiasm and brains – and heart… two hearts!"
Eccleston went on to praise the scripts, which he described as "beautiful" – adding that the care and knowledge that had gone into them had played a huge part in easing him back into the role after such a long time away.
"That's what made it feel seamless," he said. "I felt that you [Briggs] understood what he was all those years ago – and so it was like putting on a pair of old shoes. Running shoes!
"Doing the scripts, you do get the sense of somebody who's completely immersed in the lore of the show. I think what I realised, with all my writers, when I did the 13 episodes – and with this – is basically you're playing the writer.
"You're playing Steven Moffat, you're playing Russell T Davies, you're playing you [or] Rob Shearman… you're playing them, their projected self, as the Doctor – and that's what's nice, because he has a slightly different voice from episode-to-episode while having continuity, of course. You all wanna be the Doctor!"
Eccleston revealed that production had begun on the new audio series last week by posting a snap of a script to his Instagram account, and it didn't take long for dedicated Whovians to search for clues in the image – with Briggs' script seemingly titled 'Sphere of Freedom'.
Fans also spotted details of a character who will appear alongside the Ninth Doctor, a skilled chef from the Sphere of Freedom enlisted by the Time Lord to stop a dastardly plan.
Eccleston's return to the character was announced in August this year and came as a welcome surprise to fans, given he had previously appeared reluctant to reprise the role after a fall out with superiors during his time on the show.
Fans had been calling for his return for a number of years, but many thought the opportunity had passed when Eccleston turned down an opportunity to reprise the Ninth Doctor for the show's 50th anniversary special in 2013. However, he was more positive about the show when writing about it in his 2019 memoir.
The actor was the first person to take on the role after the show was revived in 2005, but he lasted only one series in the role before stepping down.
And while his audio return might be imminent, it seems a return to the TV series is not so likely – he claimed during an appearance on Lorraine last week that he would only return, "when hell freezes over!"
Each of the four volumes in Big Finish's Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor Adventures will be released as a four-disc collector's edition box set or download containing three brand-new full cast audio adventures and a selection of behind-the-scenes extras. The volumes are already available to pre-order in a range of formats from the Big Finish website.
