Coordinates: 56°11′24″N 2°49′24″W / 56.18988°N 2.82334°W / 56.18988; -2.82334

Elie and Earlsferry is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, Scotland, situated within the East Neuk beside Chapel Ness on the north coast of the Firth of Forth, eight miles east of Leven. The burgh comprised the twin villages of Elie and Earlsferry, which were formally merged in 1930 by the Local Government Act of 1929.

Earlsferry, the older of the two villages, was first settled in time immemorial. It is said that MacDuff, the Earl of Fife, crossed the Forth here in 1054 while fleeing from King Macbeth. In particular the legend tells of his escape being aided by local fishermen, an act which may have led directly to the village being promoted to royal burgh status due to MacDuff's later influence over Malcolm III.

By the middle of the 12th century, the Earls of Fife had instituted a ferry for the use of pilgrims en route to the shrine of Saint Andrew the Apostle at St Andrews. The ferry crossed the Firth of Forth to North Berwick, a distance of 7 miles, and it is this ferry that led to the naming of the place. There are the remains of a small chapel on Chapel Ness, built for the use of these pilgrims.

Christopher Eccleston (/ˈɛkəlstən/; born 16 February 1964) is an English actor, best known for his role as the ninth incarnation of the Doctor in the British television series Doctor Who. In addition to his extensive television work, he has appeared on stage and in films such as Let Him Have It, Shallow Grave, 28 Days Later, Gone in 60 Seconds, The Others, and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

Born into a working class family in the Langworthy area of Pendleton, in Salford, Lancashire, Eccleston is the youngest of three boys born to Elsie and Ronnie Eccleston. His brothers, Alan and Keith, are twins eight years his senior, born in 1956. The family lived in a small terraced house in Blodwell Street until the late 1960s, when they moved about 7 miles away to Little Hulton. Eccleston attended Joseph Eastham High School, Little Hulton, where he became head boy^{[citation needed]} At the age of 19, he was inspired by television dramas such as Boys from the Blackstuff to enter the acting profession. Eccleston completed a two-year Performance Foundation Course at Salford Tech, before going on to train at the Hampstead-based Central School of Speech and Drama. As an actor, his early influences had been Ken Loach's Kes and Albert Finney's performance in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, but he soon found himself performing the classics, including the works of Shakespeare, Chekhov and Molière. At the age of 25, Eccleston made his professional stage debut in the Bristol Old Vic's production of A Streetcar Named Desire. Underemployed as an actor for some years after graduating school, Eccleston took a variety of odd jobs at a supermarket, on building sites and as an artist's model.