Christopher Eccleston: "'Our Friends in the North' changed my life, changed my career" - The BBC drama helped launch the careers of Christopher Eccleston, Daniel Craig, Gina McKee and Mark Strong

>**Actor Christopher Eccleston says the day he landed a part in an acclaimed BBC drama was "life-changing"**. >Eccleston, whose career has included Doctor Who, was cast in the award-winning Our Friends in the North in the 1990s. >**He returned to Tyneside to mark the 30th anniversary of the show, which also helped launch the careers of Daniel Craig, Gina McKee and Mark Strong.** >The 62-year-old said: "It changed my life, changed my career, completely and utterly. Without Our Friends in the North I wouldn't have a career." >**The nine-part series followed four friends from Newcastle with the early episodes set in the 1960s before following them through their lives to 1995 examining issues such as social decay, sleaze and police and local government corruption.** >"I knew it was special," Eccleston said. >"I was 30, not long out of drama school and getting to play a character from the age of 19 to 50 by the end of it. >**"I'm never going to have an opportunity like that again to play the arc of a character's life from youthful idealism to middle-aged embittered failure."**