Eccleston swaps time for crime in first post-Doctor drama

Christopher Eccleston is to star in new ITV1 drama Perfect Parents, in his first television role since Doctor Who.

The actor, who hit the headlines when he quit the revamped version of the popular BBC drama after just one series, will appear alongside Susannah Harker in a thriller about a couple who pretend to be Catholic to get their daughter into a good school, expected to transmit on the network next year.

A spokesperson for the show said: “Stuart and Alison don’t care about God, they just want the best for their Lucy. But what they thought was a simple lie spirals into fraud, blackmail and murder.”

Vera Drake and Real Women actress Lesley Manville plays school principal Sister Antonia and David Warner stars as a corrupt priest. The show is being made by ITV Productions and has been written by Doctor Who director Joe Ahearne.

* The final season of popular US import Charmed is set to be aired on Channel 4. The move will come as a blow to Five which has shown all of the seven previous seasons of the hit American show since it started in 1998.