FORMER Doctor Who star Christopher Eccleston has hit out at inequality in the acting industry.

He warned that working-class actors are finding it tougher than ever to make it and that British culture had become bland because of the dominance of actors from privileged backgrounds in the industry.

The former Doctor Who and Our Friends In The North actor, aged 51, was brought up in Little Hulton by working-class parents.

Eccleston, who now stars in new ITV thriller Safe House, said: "I confess I don't watch much film or television drama but I'm aware of the predominance of white, male roles.

"It's not just about the working class. There's not enough writing for women or people of colour.

"It frustrates me when they insist on doing all-male Shakespearean productions — a wonderful intellectual exercise, maybe, but it's outrageous because it's putting a lot of women out of work."

Earlier this year, TV dramatist Jimmy McGovern revealed that he was struggling to fill working class roles because of a dearth of actors from poorer backgrounds.

Veteran actress Julie Walters, The Walking Dead star David Morrissey and Call The Midwife star Stephen McGann have complained about a shortage of young actors emerging from poorer backgrounds.

Eccleston, who left Doctor Who after one series as the Time Lord in 2005, told Radio Times: "I still feel insecure, like a lot of my working-class contemporaries. I had a sense acting wasn't for me because I'm not educated.

"I was a skinny, awkward-looking lad with an accent, as I still am.

"British society has always been based on inequality, particularly culturally. I've lived with it, but it's much more pronounced now, and it would be difficult for someone like me to come through."

The star, whose parents supported his ambition to become an actor, said that the Billy Elliot cliche — a northern coal miner's son whose family discourage him from becoming a ballet dancer — is "very offensive".