“I had, I had”

Having watched Our Friends in the North again over the New Year, a suspicion that had been growing since Christmas time was finally confirmed; namely, that Christopher Eccleston isn’t actually that good an actor, is he? Admittedly, he does a nice line in passionate anger, but he can’t do the small things, like eat a packet of crisps, with any conviction.

In Our Friends in the North his portrayal of the young and optimistic Nicky is far less convincing than the older more cynical version that creeps in around about episode three. Similarly the way he holds a camera and the manner in which he takes photographs looks all wrong to me.

The same is true in The Second Coming. As some tortured higher being he is fine, but as a slightly nerdy Salford lad, well he can’t drink a pint of lager with anything approaching authenticity. I think this nagging feeling regarding Eccleston’s acting deficiencies has been with me for some time, however it took the free-flowing performance of David Tennant in the Christmas Doctor Who to really bring this to the surface. So in short Eccles in Hillsborough = tops, but Eccles in Linda Green = crap