Christopher Eccleston feared scandal after falsely accused of ...

Christopher Eccleston has claimed an actress falsely accused him of inappropriately touching her while filming a sex scene.

The actor has revealed he feared becoming the centre of a scandal after an incident on set with an unnamed female star.

Eccleston claims that during filming, the woman falsely claimed that he had inappropriately “copped a feel”.

The former Doctor Who star, 59, said that the accusation was a “betrayal” of the trust that is supposed to exist between stars on set.

He said: “I did a sex scene with an A-list actress – not Nicole Kidman, who was brilliant – and she implied, in front of the crew, that I was copping a feel. Because she didn’t like me.”

‘I could have been accused of all manner of things’

Speaking to The Independent, he added that he had “never felt more betrayed by a fellow actor than I did that day”.

“I have to say to you that I would sooner have put my hands in a food blender than copped a feel of that person,” he said.

Eccleston, who stars in the latest instalment of the hit anthology series True Detective, has not named the actress involved or the production they were working on, but has revealed that it was prior to the MeToo scandal centred on the abuses of Harvey Weinstein.

He said he was “fortunate” that the accusation was made prior to the increased scrutiny that came with the MeToo movement.

The false claim may not have been made had the actors been in a more controlled environment, watched over by an intimacy co-ordinator, a professional who choreographs and controls intimate scenes, Eccleston added.

“I could have been accused of all manner of things... that’s about what passes between actors, with trust and the abuse of it.”