The Times Magazine - UK (2022-05-14)

(Antfer) #1
The Times Magazine 7

Actor John Simm, 51, was born in
Leeds and started out playing in a
band with his musician father. He is
best known for starring in Life on
Mars, Doctor Who and Mad Dogs.
He is now playing DS Roy Grace in
ITV’s Grace. He lives in Brighton
with his actress wife, Kate Magowan,
and their son and daughter.

Hiding behind my guitar was like
hiding behind a mask. I grew up
watching my dad play working
men’s clubs in the Seventies
and Eighties. I started doing them
with him from 13, when I learnt
guitar. Those audiences are
notoriously hard. It made me
grow up really quick. I was very
shy and would just stare at the
floor. My dad was constantly
nudging me and telling me to
smile and move.
I found it hard being myself in front
of an audience. I had to pretend
to be somebody else. Maybe that’s
why I became an actor.
Abattoirs are horrendous. The
smell and the noise. It was difficult
filming a Life on Mars scene in an
abattoir, then being served beef
sandwiches. It took a while to get
over that. I’m not veggie and I
apologise to the world for that.
When someone dies, you’re left
with this huge black hole in your
life [Simm’s father died in 2015].
People say, “You’ll get over it,” but
I don’t want to get over it. I always
want to remember my dad. I’ve
still got his number in my phone.
Every so often I see something
on TV that I think he’d like and
I pick up my phone to text him,
still. What I find with grief is if
I’m driving and I hear a song he
taught me that we used to play
in the clubs, I’ll have to pull over.
It hits me like a ton of bricks.
It’s like a punch in the stomach.
In my twenties, I scratched all the
itches. I was 20 in 1990. To be in
London at that time was great.
Once I left drama school, I was
out in the big wide world, working
and having fun. I’d go clubbing
and enjoy the whole scene. It’s not
as if I wasn’t functioning properly.
I was just having a good time


  • up until Human Traffic [a film
    about club culture] came out,


What I’ve learnt John Simm


INTERVIEW Georgina Roberts PORTRAIT Matt Holyoak

which, ironically, put an end to
my clubbing life. That and having
a child. It was fun while it lasted.
My parents’ divorce messed up
my world. I was 13 and it was a
strange time for me. I was doing
the clubs with my dad, so I was
very close to him. I had to go
off and live with my mum and
sisters, which I didn’t want to
do, but he said, “You need to go
and look after them.” I used the
divorce as an excuse to escape.
Soon after that, I left home, went
to college and became an actor.

They ended up getting remarried,
so it was all fine in the end.
Being from the north was
fashionable in the late Eighties.
I played on that when I came
down. I was a chippy northerner
who thought, I’m not losing my
accent. I’ve been here since I was
18 and I’m 51 now, so inevitably
it has watered down a little bit.
We actors subject ourselves to
a weird frisson of fear. When
you’ve got to go on stage, that
feeling is absolutely terrifying. But
it’s the reason we do it. The longer

you leave it, the more terrifying
it becomes. Every single time
I do it, I look at myself in the
mirror and think, “Remember
this feeling. You never need to
put yourself through this again.”
But you always forget.
Looking back on interviews I’ve
done makes me cringe. I’m not
sure I was ever young and cool.
But I’m not as mouthy any more,
I hope. n

Grace season 2 is on ITV at 8pm
on Sundays and on the ITV Hub

‘My dad has been


dead for six years,


but I still pick


up my phone


to text him’


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