- Nicholas Parsons, Doctor Who #154: The Curse of Fenric, 1989. In a sheer casting fluke, the future Docs 9 and 12 – Eccleston and Peter Capaldi – were in the Reverend Wainwright mix with Jonathon Morris and Christopher Villiers for the Doc7 Sylvester McCoy adventure.
- Robert Carlyle, Trainspotting, 1996. The cut-price Ralph Fiennes could hardly have matched Caryle’s Begbie.
- Ralph Fiennes, Oscar and Lucinda. 1996. The actor auditioned for the Oscar Hopkins side of the duo with Cate Blanchett breaking through as the wealthy heiress Lucinda Lepiastrier. He lost her here, but joined Cate the following year in the revisionist saga of England’s first queen called Elizabeth in 1997. Blanchett’s “luminescence” as Lucinda, said Austin Chronicle critic Marjorie Baumgarten, recalled Judy Davis’ stunning international debut in My Brilliant Career.” Made by the same Australian director, Giillian Armstrong.
- Daniel Craig, Our Friends in The North, TV, 1996 Dr Who swops with James Bond… Eccleston was asked to be Geordie. He found Nicky was more interesting. Mark Strong (who Eccleston never talked to during the shoot) felt the three main characters represented different aspects of the playwright Peter Flannery. Nicky was political; Craig’s Geordie, all sex-drugs-rock n’ roll; and Strong’s Tosker was the Newcastle side.
- Aidan Gillern, Queer As Folk, 1999-2000. Eccleston tested to be the gay lover of young Charlie Hunnam – and decided against joining the series. “I’m too old,” he said and recommended Gillern.
- Cillian Murphy, Batman Begins, 2004.
- Paul Bettany, The Da Vinci Code, 2005. The eighth TV Doctor Who – the first born after the doctor was born in 1963 – was too busy to be the monk who murders people. “But it’s no more a comment on monks,” said Bettany, “than it is on people who wear sandals. Or big long brown dresses.”
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 7