Today’s Martha Kearney spoke to Christopher Eccleston following the closure of the Oldham Coliseum due to a loss of funding from Arts Council England. They are giving money to build a new theatre in Oldham instead. The closing night saw an emotional Christopher Eccleston and Maxine Peake perform excerpts from a new adaptation of Ken Loach's film I, Daniel Blake - which was due to have been on the Coliseum stage this summer.

Eccleston talked about his frustration at the lack of funding, which he felt especially targets arts in the North West. The actor discussed growing up in a working class background and the ever-growing elitism of the arts: ‘you’ve got to be Oxbridge otherwise you can’t act’, he says.

He says he became an actor not for money, but for his own self-expression and ‘pursuit of the heart’, and that he couldn’t do so without the support of his wonderful family.

(Credit: Sarah Jeynes/ BBC)