Watching: Christopher Eccleston

On the list of British actors I admire, Christopher Eccleston is surely in the top round.  I've kind of had a thing for him since I saw him play Jude Fawley opposite Kate Winslet in 1996's Jude, a film based on the Thomas Hardy novel, Jude the Obscure.  

(I even went so far as to start reading the dreary novel shortly thereafter, but didn't get very far in it).  I still think Jude is possibly my favorite role of his.  I rewatched the film recently and it holds up.  Fair warning: the story is a bleak one, but it is very well written and acted.  

I also loved his Duke of Norfolk in Elizabeth two years later.  I followed his career for a few years after that (The Invisible Circus was interesting), and then sort of lost track of him for a while.  

I think I tried the 2005 reboot of Dr. Who because he took over as the Ninth Doctor (but I couldn't take the scary stuff and gave up after an episode or two, more's the pity.  He was really good in it!)  I know, I know: it's Dr. Who. I just can't handle it. I'm a wuss about scary stuff.  Fun fact: David Tenant has a very small role in Jude.  Two future Doctors together!

I rediscovered Eccleston almost by accident when he played the super villain Malekith on Thor: The Dark World, and was very glad I did.  He was a very interesting actor in his 30s; now in his early 50s, he is fascinating to watch.  He was brilliant in Thor 2--I didn't recognize him at first.  I had meant to watch his John Lennon in Lennon: Naked, but never got around to it when it came out seven years ago (it will be on my watch list now!)  He did a short television series two years ago called Safe House, about a retired policeman and his wife living in the Lakes District (I'm rather partial to the bearded, short-haired Eccleston).  

Retired policeman Robert is approached by an old colleague about turning his remote house into a safe house, and the story proceeds from there.  I wished that it could have gone for a second series with the same cast, as the ending of the first season was left rather open, with a lot of questions unanswered, but the second series picks up with a whole new cast and scenario with Stephen Moyer (of Trueblood fame) helming it.  I actually didn't care for the second season, despite liking Moyer quite a bit, and gave it up before the first episode finished.  But the first season is compelling.  I might give The Leftovers a try as well; the premise looks interesting.

Lately, Eccelston is playing a supporting role on the Sundance show The A Word, which is about a Lakes District family coping with an autism diagnosis in their youngest son.  It is a truly excellent show about dealing with special needs in a realistic family setting (and yes, that is Scottish actress Morven Christie of Grantchester fame.  She plays the mum here.  I quite like her in this one).  I was initially reluctant to watch it, because I feared it would be heavy-handed, and I worried that I wouldn't like Eccelston's character, Maurice, but actually, it is quite funny at times, and the relationships between the family characters are so real and truthful.  I'm particularly fond of Maurice--Eccelston plays him with a complexity that I appreciate, and without the broad caricature I feared. I really like all the family members--they are so well drawn and there is something to identify with in all of them.  I'm enjoying the first series quite a lot, and I hear there is another scheduled for release later this year. 

I'll be curious to see what project he takes on next--I'm sure it will be interesting, whatever it is.

So that's that!  I'm back at the keys this week, as everyone is (finally!) back in school.  I spent a rather happy morning writing transitions, moving scenes into the proper order, and what I call timeline editing (making the details match the storyline order, since this novel has been written all out of sequence).  Now that I'm putting everything in the narrative order, I have to make it all fit together sequentially.  So, for example, I don't wan to have a scene that is clearly set in the month of March immediately precede a scene that is clearly set in the autumn!  I'm not going for Faulkner with this one.  ☺