{"id":644264,"date":"2026-10-04T05:52:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T05:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/644264\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T05:52:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T05:52:18","slug":"christopher-eccleston-on-chasing-millions-a-tale-from-irelands-biggest-bank-heist-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/644264\/","title":{"rendered":"Christopher Eccleston on Chasing Millions: A tale from Ireland\u2019s biggest bank heist \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have something to clear up first. Taking the cheap and easy route, I begin by jokily venturing that, as a son of Manchester, Christopher Eccleston<\/a> must have a bit of Irish in him. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have to stop you there,\u201d he says with a dry smile.<\/p>\n

I immediately twig where he\u2019s coming from.<\/p>\n

\u201cSalford! I mean Salford!\u201d<\/p>\n

The good burghers of that city, inspiration for the fictional Coronation Street, are proud of their distinctive identity within Greater Manchester.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a worrrrrld of difference,\u201d Eccleston says, cackling. \u201cThis is our centenary. It\u2019s 100 years a city. So yeah. We know little about my mum\u2019s side. But my paternal great-grandmother was Katy Connor from Dublin<\/a>. That much we do know. My mum\u2019s side are a bit more mysterious. We think Mum\u2019s side were canal people.\u201d<\/p>\n

At any rate, Eccleston has done both Lancashire and the Irish diaspora proud over the past three or four decades. Breaking through with fine early TV work on Jimmy McGovern\u2019s Cracker and the campaigning movie Let Him Have It, he went on to become a defining actor of Britain\u2019s millennial years: part of a stellar rising cast in Our Friends in the North; reviving an icon in Russell T Davies\u2019s disinterment of Dr Who. He admits to slowing down a little in recent years, but gaps in the CV are rare.<\/p>\n

We meet as he takes on the role of a harried Northern Irish police officer in Stephen Burke\u2019s diverting Irish comedy Chasing Millions. Positioned as a mismatched-buddy flick \u2013 Madeleine Madden plays a younger, visiting Australian officer \u2013 the film is about the aftermath of the Northern Bank robbery of 2004. More than \u00a326 million was stolen in the largest such heist in British or Irish history. It is surprising the extraordinary story is not better known. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo much more was going on in terms of the peace process, which of course we know it impacted on massively,\u201d Eccleston says. \u201cI was aware of the broad headlines at the time and then forgot about it. It was only when they came to me with the script that I listened to a brilliant podcast on BBC Sounds, which was forensic in its detail for background.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chasing Millions, written by Burke and Katherine Thomson, finds the humour in some grim circumstances.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the tone we tried to go for,\u201d Eccleston says. \u201cI think it\u2019s fair to say it\u2019s true of Salford and Manchester \u2013 and it\u2019s true of Belfast \u2013 that when these things happen that humour is there. Think of the joy that Manchester United supporters are getting from Manchester City. Humour always foregrounds in those great working-class cities,\u201d he says with a laugh.<\/p>\n

We speak just hours after Manchester City were found guilty of more than 100 charges related to breaches of the Premier League\u2019s financial regulations. As a lifelong United supporter, Eccleston would not be human if he didn\u2019t take some relish in the decision.<\/p>\n

He is proud of his working-class roots. Dad was a fork-lift driver. Mum worked as a cleaner at a launderette. I had read that the acting bug didn\u2019t set in until he was at sixth-form college.<\/p>\n

\u201cI failed all my GCSEs and my O-levels, so I went to a sixth-form college,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was a very middle-class environment, and I was the lunatic. A drama teacher spotted me f**king around in the communal area and said: \u2018Well, if you\u2019re going to do that, you might as well do this play.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cI did this play, and they allowed me to put mascara on, which I left on when I went to the pub. We were around postpunk. So that whole thing was happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ChasingChasing Millions: Christopher Eccleston and Madeleine Madden in Stephen Burke’s film about the Northern Bank heist of 2004 <\/p>\n

His initial motivations were uncomplicated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a very beautiful woman playing opposite me. I was 17. I fell in love with her. Yeah, wine, women and song. I\u2019m afraid that there was no depth to my ambitions. Avoid the factory. Avoid the nine to five. Of course, when you get old you realise you really wanted a creative life. But then I just wanted to get out of a very specific environment and lifestyle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eccleston has spoken of how, 40 years ago, financial assistance was still available for working-class folk seeking a career in the theatre. It is much tougher now for people from his background.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had no academic qualifications \u2013 which, fortunately for me, were not needed at the Central School of Speech and Drama, which was grant-assisted,\u201d he says. \u201cAlso, I was given a discretionary grant by Salford council. <\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, I had no academic qualifications, but because I\u2019d got myself a place in one of these drama schools, Salford gave me a discretionary grant. I am the luckiest man on the planet compared to the equivalent of me nowadays. Somebody like me is not getting there.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0 Film Four new films to see this week: Sense and Sensibility, The Lost Children of Tuam, Her Private Hell, Stupid AugustOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

This is a peculiar story. In the 1950s and 1960s, British theatre, hitherto the preserve of the middle classes, woke up to working-class and northern voices. The Royal Court Theatre in London staged plays such as John Osborne\u2019s Look Back in Anger and Edward Bond\u2019s Saved. Actors such as Tom Courtenay and Salford\u2019s own Albert Finney became stars. It feels as if the business is heading back to the days before that social revolution.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not shifting back. It\u2019s there,\u201d Eccleston says. \u201cThey\u2019ve just done a play at the Royal Court in London, and they had a f**king red carpet outside. A red carpet outside the Royal Court Theatre? What the f**king hell\u2019s that about?\u201d<\/p>\n

This appears to be a reference to the opening of Manfred Karge\u2019s Man to Man at the famously radical theatre on Sloane Square last month. \u201cUnusually, there was a first night red carpet outside the Royal Court,\u201d Mark Lawson wrote<\/a> in The Guardian, \u201cleading a writer long associated with the venue to express \u2018shock\u2019 to ushers at such Hollywood vulgarity.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Daisy Edgar-Jones: \u2018It was great practice for Sense and Sensibility, all that time in Fermanagh fields with cows\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Speaking of red carpets, that is not where Eccleston ever expected to find himself. He remembers the Irish actor John Lynch, who was at Central with him, heading off to make Pat O\u2019Connor\u2019s Cal before graduation.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne Sunday morning we were playing football \u2013 Central versus Rada. We all turned up, getting changed by the goalpost, and out of the mist, he came. Here\u2019s Johnny Lynch with his boots. He was back, and he\u2019d made a feature film. It was mind-blowing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who knew the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art had a soccer team?<\/p>\n

\u201cAt drama school from 1983 to 1986, you never saw a camera,\u201d he says. \u201cEverything we did was theatre based. I can\u2019t believe how naive I was, because it never occurred to me that I might be on television. I had no ambition to be on screen. The great passion was to be on stage \u2013 to play the lead, big classical roles and the contemporary roles.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LetLet Him Have It: Christopher Eccleston as Derek Bentley. Photograph: Richard Blanshard\/Getty <\/p>\n

Eccleston sees himself as a theatre actor who became a screen actor by accident. After drama school he didn\u2019t work for three years. He moved back to Salford. He eventually wangled an Equity card and landed the role of Derek Bentley, a young man controversially hanged for murder in 1953, in Peter Medak\u2019s acclaimed Let Him Have It.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I went from being the least successful in my year to the most successful,\u201d Eccleston says. \u201cComplete lottery. Sir Alex Ferguson said it about himself. He said: \u2018Apart from everything else, I\u2019ve always been lucky.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Talent and charisma also mattered. Eccleston was suddenly everywhere. He appeared in Danny Boyle\u2019s debut feature, Shallow Grave, in 1994. He was DCI David Bilborough in the first two series of Cracker. And then there was Our Friends in the North. <\/p>\n

Screened on the BBC in 1996 in nine feature-length episodes, Peter Flannery\u2019s series followed four Geordies from the early 1960s to what was then the present day: from Harold Wilson\u2019s first general election victory to the birth of New Labour.<\/p>\n

The casting could hardly have been cannier: Eccleston, Daniel Craig, Mark Strong and Gina McKee. A James Bond. A Doctor Who. And two more of the most versatile actors of their generation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember feeling in awe of all three of them in terms of their ability,\u201d he says. \u201cDaniel, as well as being a brilliant actor, had a kind of sexual, physical, leading-man rock-star charisma. Whenever he was on set, you thought, wow, that\u2019s charisma. <\/p>\n

\u201cMark\u2019s a brilliant actor. And Gina, of course, was the best of the bunch in terms of the performance. Very good. Talk about performance on television for camera.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ChristopherChristopher Eccleston as Doctor Who. Photograph: BBC <\/p>\n

A degree of controversy still surrounds Eccleston\u2019s time as Doctor Who. The 2005 rejuvenation \u2013 the first formal series since 1989 \u2013 was a critical and ratings success. Eccleston\u2019s hard-edged northern Doctor went down well. Billy Piper excelled as a smart assistant. But the lead left after just one season.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy relationship with my three immediate superiors \u2013 the showrunner, the producer and co-producer \u2013 broke down irreparably during the first block of filming and it never recovered,\u201d he told Radio Times in 2018. \u201cThey lost trust in me, and I lost faith and trust and belief in them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is there anything he wants to say about it now?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. Just that I\u2019m very proud of the 13 episodes that I was part of, because they were made, from a professional point of view, under the most difficult circumstances,\u201d he says, politely. \u201cThe establishing of a series like that \u2013 the first series \u2013 when you\u2019re shooting it, that\u2019s a tough one to do. I\u2019m very proud of what I did. And I adored the character.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ChristopherChristopher Eccleston in True Detective: Night Country. Photograph: HBO <\/p>\n

Eccleston survived. He had good roles in the US series Heroes, True Detective and the cult favourite The Leftovers, among others. He brushed against the MCU in Thor: The Dark World. He was an acclaimed Scrooge on stage at the Old Vic in London. <\/p>\n

Yet I have read him saying that, if he had another go round, he might not become an actor again. He would prefer to get his hands on the levers of power.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not going to level up the playing field as an actor,\u201d he says. \u201cIf I\u2019d have gone to try and run the National Theatre then I might have levelled the playing field. Then I can effect change. Then I can affect taste. But all those jobs, we know, go to the Oxbridge, public-school lot. They\u2019re only going to lean towards the culture they know. They\u2019re going to lean to the people they know. It\u2019s just got more and more unfair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eccleston admits he is not as busy as he once was. Time to stretch out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been quiet for me for a good few years,\u201d he says. \u201cChanges in the industry. Changes in my age. It\u2019s been a tough time, but the biggest part of being an actor is being unemployed. I\u2019m very good at being unemployed.\u201d<\/p>\n

He laughs a fatalistic laugh.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need a little bit of luck to get going again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chasing Millions is in cinemas from Friday, October 9th<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We have something to clear up first. Taking the cheap and easy route, I begin by jokily venturing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[41454,61,60,8579,917,43,1102],"class_list":["post-644264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-christopher-eccleston","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-manchester-city","tag-manchester-united","tag-news","tag-premier-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}