Actor Christopher Eccleston has taken to Instagram to share a rendition of John Cooper Clarke’s ‘I Wanna Be Yours’ as the UK enters its second week of lockdown due to the Coronavirus.
Eccleston, who was born and raised in Little Hulton, is seen reciting the Salfordian punk poet’s 1982 work, with the video amassing over 10,000 views in three hours.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-Zmt4aB-TP/
Fans of Eccleston, known for the BBC’s Doctor Who, Our Friends In The North and The A Word, reacted with enthusiasm to the video, with one user commenting: “Honestly, I’d listen to you read the phone book”.
Another user added: “I honestly think you should do a couple of audiobooks or voice acting because you know how to engage people with that voice”.
A third said: “Thank you so much. I’m afraid now, but when I see video like your I feel I’m not alone.”
John Cooper Clarke was raised in Higher Broughton, before rising to fame in the late 1970s and early 1980s with his works including 36 Hours and Beasley Street, with Eccleston himself once reciting his poem Evidently Chickentown for the 2001 film Strumpet.
The ‘punk poet’ received an honorary doctorate from the University of Salford in 2013, acknowledging “a career which has spanned five decades, bringing poetry to non-traditional audiences and influencing musicians and comedians”.
Christopher Eccleston released a much-praised autobiography, I Love The Bones Of You in 2019, detailing his early life in Salford and how the city “shaped his desire to make drama forever entwined with the marginalised, the oppressed, and the outsider”.
The actor and dementia advocate also opened the Salford Institute for Dementia Hub in 2017.
Eccleston’s rendition of I Wanna Be Yours comes amid a wave of celebrities sharing content for those in self-isolation, with Bastille’s Dan Smith recently sharing a rendition of Dolly Parton’s Jolene urging listeners to stay at home.
Main Image: composite. Screenshot: Christopher Eccleston Instagram / Wikipedia; dementia hub image from University of Salford
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