20 Things You Didn’t Know About Trainspotting
9. Christopher Eccelston Nearly Played Begbie
There's no question that Robert Carlyle put in a career-best shift as the unbridled force of rage that is Francis "Franco" Begbie from start to finish in this 1996 British sensation, but there was a time when another rather formidable actor from outside of Scotland was considered for this blistering part.
It's said that Danny Boyle actually had his heart set on Doctor Who alumni Christopher Eccleston for the role of Begbie. But as the Northern thespian was simply too busy shooting Our Friends in the North to commit himself to his fellow Greater Manchester native's flick, the director was forced to seek an appropriate plan B.
And what a plan B, he found.
But, even though it's pretty much impossible to imagine anyone else in the role of the loudmouth Scot than Carlyle today, seeing Eccleston take a stab at the moustache-boasting explosion of a man would've no doubt been just as memorable.