A Life Worth Living: Acting, Activism and Everything Else

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In July 2021, Jessop received an honorary Doctorate of Arts from the University of Winchester for his services to the entertainment industry. Thirty-eight years ago, Jane Jessop had no pre-testing. For the first year, Tommy as in such ill health that it was touch and go. But after a year, she says, “it was as if [Tommy] woke up.” VICTORIA- Me too, they’re amazing. They were so sweet to me and have been so supportive since. Actually because of that day they put Swan Song on their pre-show playlist, so at every one of their shows it’s playing before their set, which is pretty amazing. This is not the first time Will, 40, and Tommy have collaborated on a TV programme – together, they made the Grierson-nominated Tommy's Story in 2007 and the Emmy-nominated Growing Up Down's in 2014.

Tommy Jessops Goes to Hollywood will air on BBC One at 9pm tonight (August 21). Tommy enlisted his brother Will Jessop show that people with Down's syndrome can play heroes and so, inspired by the advice of his agent, he has decided to take matters into his own hands and create his new documentary. My main reason for writing my memoir is for other people to understand us a bit better," Jessop, 38, says over Zoom from the home he shares with his parents near Winchester in Hampshire. "To see how we think and feel, and to see we are no different from other people." Edel Harris, Chief Executive of the learning disability charity Mencap, said: “We are delighted to welcome Tommy Jessop as our Ambassador. Like the rest of the nation, I was gripped by the last season of Line of Duty and was delighted to see someone who has Down’s syndrome on such a popular and prime time TV show. It’s incredibly important because representation really does matter and I’m thrilled he’s joined the Mencap family. The Line of Duty actor Tommy Jessop remembers the moment his life changed, 20 years ago, at a pizza party in his family home to celebrate turning 18. It was when he stood up and told everybody gathered, friends and family: “I want to be an actor”.WILL- No, don’t down it. just a sip! Just a sip! We’re micro dosing. There we go, that’s the expresso. Now sit up nice and straight. Jessop’s immediate personal challenge is to get bigger roles, to advance his career beyond being cast as disabled, hence Roger the Superhero. When we speak over Zoom, Jessop is at home near Winchester and it’s clear he has a keen sense of humour – he joins the call, ensuring his novelty T-shirt with a picture of a pizza on it, is on full show. Jane sits nearby, helping him when he needs it, which he rarely does. Instead, he teases her. At the start, Jessop’s parents didn’t take his professional acting ambitions seriously. Did they realise they’d got it wrong when he was cast in Coming Down the Mountain? “Er, no,” he says, deadpan. “We did!” protests Jane, smiling. “Walking on set, the very first day, there were 100 people, and huge contraptions for cameras and lights and things. I thought: ‘Wow, I hope Tommy can pull this off.’ And then they got Bafta-nominated so …” Jessop laughs. The world of theatre is a different story. While organisations such as Blue Apple theatre and Zeno Mountain Farm have been staging elaborate productions starring performers with disabilities for years, the mainstream industry has been slower to embrace the Down’s syndrome community. Jamie Brewer became the first actor with Down’s syndrome to play a lead in a Broadway or off-Broadway production in 2018, when she starred in Amy and the Orphans, which depicts three siblings reunited at their father’s wake. Playwright Lindsey Ferrentino’s telling note to directors when she submitted the work? “Finding a talented actor with Down’s syndrome isn’t difficult. So please do it.” Netflix is adapting the work into a film, with Ferrentino set to direct.

We should always be speaking up for the rights of people with Down syndrome, so that we are able to make our own choices in life,” says Tommy of the reasoning behind the documentary and the movie plans. While Roger The Superhero is still in development, Tommy and Will hope that Tommy Jessop Goes To Hollywood will provide inspiration to people with Down syndrome and other disabilities, showing them that they can achieve their dreams.

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NIKKI- No, not at all. I was wondering, I played music a bit when I was younger, I was a bit rubbish, but I took music up because I was a little bit different from my friends at school, and I used to love listening to Kate Bush and The Beatles and playing the piano a bit and writing rubbish songs. It kind of saved me to a degree. And I wondered was that a thing for you music? James Martin was just in a short film that won (best live action short film] at the Oscars. George Webster, Ellie Goldstein, Sarah Gordy, etc. There's some wonderful talent out there.