View source for Eccleston: I refused to be a posh Doctor

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| publication = The Telegraph
| file = 2015-04-14 Telegraph.jpg
| px = 400
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| date = 2015-04-14
| author = Hannah Furness
| pages = 3
| language = English 
| type = 
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| text = CHRISTOPHER ECCLESTON has told how he insisted on having a northern accent in the roe of Doctor Who to defy assumptions that clever people must have a "posh" voice. Eccleston, who left the BBC sci-fi drama just one series into its relaunch, said he had pushed for the character to have a non-received pronunciation accent for the first time, in recognition of his working-class roots.

Saying he no longer watched the show, he added that inequality was still rife in British society, with the rise of privileged actors leaving the arts "milky and anodyne".

In an interview with the Radio limes, to promote his role in the ITV thriller Safe House, the 51-year-old actor said he was not keen to discuss his time as the Doctor—he was the ninth incarnation in 2005 — but hoped he would be remembered for playing the part. He has previously said he left the show becalm he "didn't ;wee with the way things were being run, or like the culture that grew up around the series".

The Salford-born actor said of the characters "I wanted to move him away from RP' [received pronunciation] for the first time bemuse we shouldn't make a correlation between intellect and accent although that still needs addressing

"I hope I'll be remembered as one of the Doctors. I have no ill feeling towards the character or the series."

Turning to the difficulties facing working-class actors, he, added: "British society has always been based on inequality, particularly culturally. "I've lived with It, but it's much more pronounced now, and it would be difficult for someone like me to come through. You can't blame Eddie Redmayne, Benedict Cumberbatch and others taking their opportunities but it will lead to a milky, anodyne culture. To an extent that's already happened." 


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