Danny Boyle's two (DV) TV features, Strumpet and Vaccuuming Completely Nude in Paradise are a return to friendly roots after the stresses and general Hollywoodness of the much-chastised Leo vehicle, The Beach. It worked. He must have enjoyed himself for the director which set screens alight with his first two, local, movies surrounded himself with real British talent from his part of town, Bolton. Talent like the superb playwright Jim Cartwright who wrote both scripts and the lead in Strumpet, Christopher Ecclestone. Ecclestone was born just to the south in Salford and I was fortunate enough to grab twenty minutes and a pint with one of our finest actors after the Edinburgh press conference. He plays Strayman, a lost soul with immense clarity of vision stuck in end-of-the-trainline council block myopia - it's a raw and thoroughly liberating role, a man who lives on, in and with the filth of a score of mutts because they are all he can trust. A chance encounter with a young runaway musician (Jenna G in her debut) gives voice to his poetry and a type of love develops, Ecclestone's is one of the finest performances you are likely to see. Oh, and there are at least ten (yes…stray) dogs in every scene. Just bloody great…especially if you like dogs! If you recall, we last spoke to him a year ago, just as he was preparing for the Gilliam tragedy, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Did you work in Spain on The Man Who Killed Don Quixote? No I hadn't gone out. It's tragic really for Terry Gilliam that the film didn't go ahead. I was looking for work and this came up, so I started work on this one. Didn't you work with Danny Boyle before? Yeah I did Shallow Grave with Danny Boyle about… how long was it 6,7,8,9,10,20 years ago. A long time ago then? - and I understand you are a great admirer of Jim Cartwright, especially Road? That's always what makes me choose a part or what attracts me to a job is the script, because that's all the actor's got really. In a way, the director has lots of other things to make himself feel comfortable with: choices about design and light, camera movement, cast & costume, but all an actor has is the basic relationship to the script, so its always about choosing the script. Is that what made you take it? I felt I could play that part yeah, and I felt that, what Jim was trying to say, I wanted to be a part of. It's a free and raw part isn't it? Raw as arseholes as they say in the piece, absolutely… Was it as liberating as it looked and when was the last time you had something that you could just do from the gut? Well I always try and find stuff that you can do from the gut because I think that the things that come from the gut are the most interesting to watch. I've worked with Jimmy McGovern a lot and I always feel he writes with his heart and his soul, and I think Jim does and I think Rita Flannery does. I think that's what we should always aim at, whatever we do, painting, music, acting. I think we all have the ability to write from the heart about our own experiences and I think if you shape a script or a performance and try to be as pure as you possible can about what you want to say, regardless of where you're from, it'll translate and people will respond to it. I think to a certain extent the north of Britain is passed over and ignored as a film location, as a living experience, and as Danny was saying you know, things do become a little London-centric, and I don't think that's a good thing. Were you actually in The Road and why was it such an important piece of work? No, I was never in Road, I just saw it. I think that play spoke to anybody from a working class background, the East End of London, you know. There was a really successful production of that in Glasgow. That's the thing actually, if you speak from your heart, it becomes universal, and Road would probably work in Argentina or anywhere because it's a pure sort of expression. What was it like working with all those dogs - do you like dogs? Yeah I like dogs more than I like cats. In a way it was a problem we had to deal with, and it was such an extraordinary thing to have twenty dogs in almost every scene, that it unified the problem. We all had the stink and we all had to deal with their unpredictability so it just fed into the piece. A couple of times, you actually become one. Yeah. How did that fit in, it's not and easy thing to do is it? That was Danny. I mean anyone can bark, but It came across well and was shot well. Yeah I suppose I wanted Stray man to be a little bit like he'd almost become dog-like, but that was because I think what Jim was thinking and I thought that was a very original thing to try to express - and it's great fun from and actor's point of view. And you can't help but absorb the way dogs behave when you're with them for six days a week for six weeks. Yeah I was always embarrassed doing the animal thing, but I can see the value of it. De Nero said that he based Travis Bickle on a crab, but you'll have to talk to him about that! I don't think it matters whether the viewers can see it, it's just a trick, or a point of reference that an actor might use and it will bleed into the performance. Have you shot on DV before? Never, no. We were saying earlier that you put it into the background and that it didn't seem to impose on the performances. Yeah in a funny way it's in the foreground because you know you are working with new technology and it can become quite organic in a way because the cameras can move the way another actor can move. The scenes in the room with the writing on the wall with Jenna Gee and yourself. How many cameras were in a room at a time? You know I can't remember there were so many bloody cameras at differing times, but I think there were at least a couple, and at one point I had a camera strapped to me and my responsibility was to shoot myself but also get Jenna in the background. It was interesting because obviously I was concerned about my own performance, but Danny and Anthony gave me another job, which was get Jenna framed. I kind of liked that. I liked that responsibility and it made me feel more involved in the whole process. You didn’t have much time with the script though, did you? That doesn't matter, I had a gut reaction to the script and that's all I need anyway. I'm not really a preparation junkie, you know a lot of what you do on film and television and the theatre is about collaboration and listening to other peoples' ideas. Having a strong idea yourself, but also having a certain amount of flexibility and trust in the people you are collaborating with. What stage did you get to with Don Quixote? I never actually got out there, you know a lot of people were going to work on that film and had put a lot of preparation and effort into it and were also going to earn their living and it fell through. Gilliam is such a brilliant filmmaker and I'm sure it must be heart breaking for him because a director is involved on every level, especially considering the story is all about trying to do the impossible. I would imagine that Terry will remount that horse. And would you be involved? I don't know, you can't ever predict that. It doesn't matter whether I'm involved, what matters is that Terry Gilliam makes that film. I suppose it was nice for you to be shooting with someone from your part of town? Yeah it was. You know, there's a lot of talent and ability in the north of Britain, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool. I've been fortunate to shoot in all them cities and it was fantastic for me to be able to do something which was about my own town. That's a problem in film and television and theatre, it’s a move away from ideas and towards style and it was quite disturbing that Jim wasn't asked more questions at the press conference because without Jim, none of us would have been there. What's important is that Danny chose to shoot on DV in direct response to Jim's scripts and Jim is not a conventional writer, he's not a conventional theatre writer either. If you look at Road, it wasn't people on stage and people in the audience, it was mingling and there's a very interesting connection there. I think Danny felt the best way to capture Jim's world and Jim's writing and Jim's characters was with the new technology. I think that's interesting in itself, you know the energy and spontaneity to Jim's writing. The thing is, I would imagine that Jim didn't go to the theatre a lot, I would imagine that Jim watched an awful lot of 70s and 80s drama which was writer-centric, if that s the right phrase. That was what probably formed Jim, writer led television rather than theatre. Do you still do theatre? I did a play last year. What was that? It was called Miss Julie. The more you do television and film, the more you realise it's predominately, in a way, a director's medium. If you want to learn about acting I think you're better off doing theatre training. I think I'd be a much better actor if I'd done more theatre, but you know, being an actor you have to take what comes along. Where did you study? Central school of Speech and drama What made you realise that you wanted to do this? It was all the stuff I'd grown up with on British television, a big thing for me was Boys From The Blackstuff for television and a big film for me was Kes. A big television thing for me was a thing called Sponges, which was written by a guy called Jim Allen who has now sadly died. You said earlier that you read a script and then you take it, but is there an element of, its Jim Cartwright so I'm going to do it? Partly, from a certain… you know actors are always looking for work, actors want a job. But the fact that is written by Jim Cartwright is massive for me. I think Jim's a brilliant writer and it was important to me because Jim's from where I'm from and I have a similar world view in a funny way, and Danny's from that area. Danny's from a place called Radcliffe, I think, and Jim is from Bolton and I was born in Salford but I was brought up in a place called Little Hulton and they are very close to each other. Did you feel you had to coach Jenna Gee at all? Not at all, no. Jenna Gee is a very talented musician. The best thing about working with someone who hasn’t acted before is that they make you re-address how you're working and whether you're becoming too technical and too finished. Jenna coached me, especially in the music, in her confidence and in her commitment and the way she did it. She was very naturalistic, and that brought me down, she taught me more than I taught her. Would you ever think about directing anything yourself? I would think about it but I think it's a very difficult thing to do. It's a very trendy thing for actors to say, but I would be very grateful of the opportunity to have a go at directing. I don't know how good I'd be, but it's certainly something I would like to have a go at. The reason I would like to have a go at it is because I would like to put the writer back at the centre of the work. Do you write? No I don’t, too lazy, too undisciplined. What are you up to now? I've just finished a film with Alex Cox called Revengers Tragedy and I'm just about to start work on a film with Danny Boyle called 28 Days Later. Who do you play in that? I play the part of an army captain, It’s a very interesting part and a very interesting project.