The Accused (Eccleston)

[WillsBabe]

I haven't seen anyone comment on this yet, so I thought I'd start a thread.

I had this lying on my hard drive for a couple of weeks and watched it last night. Chris' episode was the first in a series of standalone stories written by Jimmy McGovern concerning the subject of people finding themselves accused of crimes. I don't know how the rest of the series has gone since I only watched Chris' installment.

Chris playes Willy Houlihan, a self-employed plumber. Like a lot of McGovern's characters he's northern and working class (despite having done well for himself in the status of owning his own buisness and a nice, semi-detached house). As the story opens we find Willy in handcuffs about to face trial. As the story unflods, through the means of a retrospective narrative (they're a bit more than flashbacks) we are shown various and sundry reasons why he might be in court facing trial.

It won't come as a surpirse to anyone here that I always enjoy watching Eccleston, and I've enjoyed McGovern's stuff in the past (namely Cracker, where I first came across Chris). I kind of enjoyed the episode and seeing Chris in some straight drama again, but I don't think much of McGovern's dialogue which doesn't seem very naturalistic or realistic to me, and I thought the plot became contrived towards the end. The outcome (which I won't spoil if you are hoping to catch it) was largely unsatisfactory to me. McGovern started to disappoint me a long time ago, which is why I'm reminded that I stopped watching his drama, but it was nice to see Chris, who didn't remind me of the Doctor once, except, oddly enough for me to wonder how he would ever have been the Doctor!

Anyone else catch this? Thoughts?

 

[The]

Unfortunately, no. The only new Chris I've been able to see here in the U.S. was his paying gig as "Destro" in the G.I.Joe movie. Understand, I don't blame him for the mental and emotional trauma that movie caused me. However, I was absolutely staggered that not even The Eccles could elevate his role above the direness of that entire lump of Hollywood marketing feces. It saddened me greatly.

However, anytime I begin to doubt him, I simply watch Revenger's Tragedy with him and Derek Jacobi and Eddie Izzard. Have you seen that one? I'm not certain how old it is, but I'd bet it was before Who...

 

[WillsBabe]

However, anytime I begin to doubt him, I simply watch Revenger's Tragedy with him and Derek Jacobi and Eddie Izzard. Have you seen that one? I'm not certain how old it is, but I'd bet it was before Who...

I haven't seen that at all! Sounds great. I studied the Revengers Tragedy about 25 years ago at university, but I can't seem to remember a thing about it!

It's been quite an Eccles weekend, actually. Before watching The Accused I watched about a quarter of The Seeker. At one point I found myself asking my husband "is he the doctor?" when Eccles turned up as the old fashioned doctor who attends the kid's twisted ankle. It took me a couple of moments before I realised what I'd said.

 

[ClayinCA]

Unfortunately, no. The only new Chris I've been able to see here in the U.S. was his paying gig as "Destro" in the G.I.Joe movie.

You didn't see him in Heroes? He was pretty good in it--he even got to say "Fantastic!"

However, anytime I begin to doubt him, I simply watch Revenger's Tragedy with him and Derek Jacobi and Eddie Izzard. Have you seen that one? I'm not certain how old it is, but I'd bet it was before Who...

Oh man, yes. I found that in the previously-viewed bin in a Blockbuster once, and it's great. It's also got Marc Warren ("Love and Monsters") in it, and you're correct--it was before Doctor Who (IMDb has it listed as 2002). If anyone's interested in Eccleston's work outside his time as the Doctor, this is definitely one to get, particularly if you're into classical theatre.

 

[Whofan]

His Lennon bio was recently on PBS as well.


There's actually some movie from the 90s where he has a scene with David Tennant.


First time I heard about Eccleston was during the casting for the Star Wars prequels-his name came up a few times as a possible actor. There's a picture of a Grand Moff Tarkin makeup test that kind of looks a bit like Eccleston instead of Wayne Prygam, who played the role for a second in Revenge of the Sith. I wonder if Eccleston was asked, but declined due to doing WHO at the time or because the roll was very small (Plus by this time Star Wars and Lucas had a bad rep among British actors). It would've been kind of cool though to have both Tarkins played by an actor who played the Doctor (Although Cushing is a 'non-canon' Doctor )

 

[Starkers]

You know if might have been that fact that put him off

 

[Chris3123]

Unfortunately, no. The only new Chris I've been able to see here in the U.S. was his paying gig as "Destro" in the G.I.Joe movie.

You didn't see him in Heroes? He was pretty good in it--he even got to say "Fantastic!"

He was also in the Amelia Earhart movie Amelia as Fred Noonan.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

First time I heard about Eccleston was during the casting for the Star Wars prequels-his name came up a few times as a possible actor. There's a picture of a Grand Moff Tarkin makeup test that kind of looks a bit like Eccleston instead of Wayne Prygam, who played the role for a second in Revenge of the Sith. I wonder if Eccleston was asked, but declined due to doing WHO at the time or because the roll was very small

What I've heard is that Eccleston was offered the role of Tarkin, but he declined because of the pointless logistics of flying to Australia (a day's flight out, a day's flight back) for thirty seconds of screentime.

 

[diankra]

Unfortunately, his episode was probably the weakest to date: I've not seen no.4 yet, but 2 and 3 are devastatingly shocking.

 

[Sci]

There's actually some movie from the 90s where he has a scene with David Tennant.

That would be 1996's Jude, which starred Christopher Eccleston as the title character and co-starred Kate Winslet as his lover/cousin. It's based on Thomas Hardy's novel Jude the Obscure, and it's an absolutely wonderful film, though very depressing. Tennant appears very briefly as a drunk upper-class student harassing Eccleston's working-class Jude.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I did record the first couple of episodes but had so much to catch up on I just deleted them as the reviews didn't sound like they were must watch shows.

 

[Captaindemotion]

First time I heard about Eccleston was during the casting for the Star Wars prequels-his name came up a few times as a possible actor. There's a picture of a Grand Moff Tarkin makeup test that kind of looks a bit like Eccleston instead of Wayne Prygam, who played the role for a second in Revenge of the Sith. I wonder if Eccleston was asked, but declined due to doing WHO at the time or because the roll was very small

What I've heard is that Eccleston was offered the role of Tarkin, but he declined because of the pointless logistics of flying to Australia (a day's flight out, a day's flight back) for thirty seconds of screentime.

I believe that it was always Pygram but AICN characteristically got it wrong and printed a pic & said that it was Eccleston. The error was corrected almost immediately by other websites.

I don't think he was ever really in the running, despite a resemblance to Cushing. Would've been funny if Tarkin had been played by a second Doctor, all the same!

 

[Count Zero]

Unfortunately, no. The only new Chris I've been able to see here in the U.S. was his paying gig as "Destro" in the G.I.Joe movie. Understand, I don't blame him for the mental and emotional trauma that movie caused me. However, I was absolutely staggered that not even The Eccles could elevate his role above the direness of that entire lump of Hollywood marketing feces. It saddened me greatly.

Not only that but he also had this terrible fake Scottish accent throughout the movie. I was torn between liking seeing him and being dismayed at the accent. And that movie seemed interminable. I watched it with a friend (also a Who fan) who fell asleep around the halfway mark. What a crappy movie.