Northern man adrift
Brit actor Christopher Eccleston relates to his latest role on many levels, finds
Christopher Eccleston says he’ll never retire. ‘‘That’s one of the beauties of my job, is you can keep doing it as long as you can keep coming, and your roles change as you change,’’ the English actor says.
His latest role is Maurice, the character he plays in BBC family drama The A Word.
Maurice is the 56-year-old patriarch of a family living in northern England’s Lake District. He’s a real man’s man, physically strapping but emotionally clumsy.
The show’s drama comes from the family’s reaction to the discovery that Maurice’s grandson, 5-year-old Joe, has autism.
Maurice’s first instinct is to ‘‘fix’’ the ‘‘problem’’. ‘‘How do we cure it?’’ he asks, offending just about everyone.
‘‘Maurice is on it right away, and foolishly thinks you can fix it, thinks it’s something that can be rectified, which is part of the journey for a lot of people,’’ Eccleston says.
Although the ‘‘A word’’ is in the show’s title, autism doesn’t define the whole show.
‘‘We didn’t set out to make a polemic, we set out to make a drama about a family. But if it raises awareness along the way, we’re very grateful for that,’’ Eccleston says.
It seems to have done a good job of raising awareness.
Eccleston has been stopped in the street on several occasions by people who have autism in their families. They’ve thanked him for making the series, and spoken ‘‘passionately’’ about identifying themselves in the characters.
Maurice’s response to his grandson’s diagnosis is not a helpful one, but it’s probably one people can identify with.
Eccleston says there’s a certain type of northern man who wants to fix everything. Born just over an hour’s drive from the Lake District himself, Eccleston’s known many of them. Some people might say he’s one himself.
He certainly identified with Maurice. ‘‘I certainly emotionally locate myself close to Maurice. I’m probably a little ahead of him in terms of self-awareness. But maybe I’m not, maybe I think I am but actually I trample all over people’s feelings every day.
‘‘I like to think that I’m a better version of Maurice, but who knows, I’d have to ask the people around me. I certainly share a lot of traits with him. He’s a character I recognise, in both myself and those around me.’’
One of the traits Eccleston shares with his character is that they’re from a generation where a man’s worth was tied up to his ability to work hard.
Unlike Eccleston, Maurice is newly retired at the show’s opening – a ‘‘foolish, foolish thing to do for a man like that,’’ the actor says.
Having too much time on his hands causes all sorts of problems for the character.
‘‘Maurice is a man adrift in the early 21st century, partly by grief at the loss of his wife, and then trying to understand this new notion of autism.’’
Eccleston says his own work ethic comes from his parents. ‘‘Work’s a huge issue for me, my mother and my father, my brothers, we come from working people.
‘‘My dad had and my mum has a ferocious work ethic, and I need work, I need to work. I need to think that I’m earning, not just for the practical reasons, but it’s just very much part of a working class identity, the importance of work. I’ll always work.’’
His own father entered the workforce when he was just 14.
At 52, Eccleston found himself the oldest member of The A Word‘s core cast.
It’s a situation that’s becoming more common for the former Doctor Who star, but he’s not worried about it.
‘‘Not so long ago I was the youngster. It’s very moving, all that, really, to feel your life passing and your work reflecting that.’’
If it seems Eccleston’s art is reflecting his life, that’s no accident. He puts it down to similarities between himself and The A Word‘s writer, Peter Bowker.
‘‘I think certainly mine and Peter Bowker’s backgrounds and ages are very similar.
‘‘And when Pete wrote that character, I thought: I know this man. I’ve known this man for centuries, in a sense.
‘‘And I think it’s certainly been a thing of the late 20th, early 21st century that men have found themselves cut adrift and challenged by feminism and change in roles for men.
‘‘And it’s meant examining what masculinity actually is has become a thing to do ... there’s definitely a very strongly recognisable type from the north, the northern male, which is not to say that there aren’t southern males who are exactly the same from working class backgrounds.
‘‘And there’s comedy and tragedy in that.’’