Christopher Eccleston, 37, plays Strayman, a bar-room poet who lives with a pack of stray dogs, in Strumpet, 
broadcast tomorrow on BBC2, reuniting him with Shallow Grave director Danny Boyle. He also stars with Nicole 
Kidman in the horror film The Others, released on November 2, and plays Jago in a modern-day Othello, broadcast 
on I TV in December. He lives in Manchester. 

Alan Jackson: Commiserations. You've recently been forced by some cruel, cruel screenwriter to play the part of 
Nicole Kidman's husband in The Others Our sympathies are with you. 

Christopher Eccleston: What a cracking woman she is! Fantastic! Plus I really admire the choices she's made as 
an actress - and she's an extremely fine one. Sadly, my role opposite her is a very small one. I was very pleased 
to play it though. 

AJ: Meanwhile, you've foresaken London for your native North West. What did we do to upset you? 

CE: I don't mean for you to interpret it as a political act. It wasn't so much about one place or the other, 
but about where my family and most of my friends are. But the football's better up here, the beer's better, 
and the women are better - looking. No competition. 

AJ: Your old neighbours will miss your singing though, I'm sure. Or, again, possibly not. Because you are always 
singing, aren't you? What, exactly? 

CE: Al Green, mainly. He's the guv'nor, as far as I'm concerned. 

AJ: Excerpts from The Belle Album, I hope. 

CE: Its title track is probably my favourite song ever, granted. But it's the LPs Call Me, I'm Still In Love 
With You and Al Green Gets Next To You that form the essential core of my repertoire. 

AJ: Do you perform well? 

CE: Very badly, but very insistently. 

AJ: Perfect then that this new drama should place you in the Top of the Pops studio at Elstree. Did Jimmy Savile, 
Tony Blackburn and Dave Lee Travis loom as large in your boyhood as they did in mine? 

CE: Oh, yes. I remember my dad was bemused when the show came on each Thursday evening, and my two brothers getting 
up in unison to practise whatever dance moves they.d be showing off down the youth club. I'd watch wondering when I 
might finally get to be that cool. 

AJ: Singer Jenna G plays your musical partner, the titular Strumpet. I misheard the PR when she called up about it. 
Gina G, I thought she said. Of "Ooh ahh, just a little bit/Ooh ahh, just a little bit more... " microfame. 

CE: (laughing) The two could hardly be more different. Jenna's a really cool girl, passionate about her R'n'B and 
hip-hop. She'd never acted before, so she was totally untouched by the business. Her naturalness was a kick up the 
arse for me. 

AJ: A pack of 20-odd hounds acts as a kind of Greek chorus in the piece, How dog-friendly are you? 

CE: Pretty friendly. Actually they were a real positive force because not only did they each display their own personality, 
but the problems that arose from them - the stench, and they were always scrapping - acted as a unifier for the team. 

AJ: Any particular mutt you felt like offering a home to? 

CE: Not really, 'cos I'm a Jack Russell terrier man. Greatest dog in the world. They're fiercely independent, unsentimental 
and they'll fight anything. A bloody good working dog. 

AJ: The Christopher Eccleston of the canine world? 

CE: No, mate. I'm just your standard-issue poodle.