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‘It’s time for us to live our lives to the full’: Line of Duty’s Tommy Jessop on changing the world for people with Down’s syndrome
His parents hoped he might get a job in a library. Instead he became an actor, a campaigner – and a role model
Most of Tommy Jessop’s acting plans are, he says with a smile, “top secret”. His biggest ambition is to play James Bond, and there’s an opening now. Jessop laughs, and says he has been told he looks like Bond. “It’s when you’re wearing black tie,” says Jessop’s mother, Jane, who is sitting next to him. Jessop has had cause to wear black tie a fair amount – this year, Line of Duty, in which he starred as murder suspect Terry Boyle, picked up a National Television Award. Jessop’s first big role saw him star alongside Nicholas Hoult in the 2007 BBC drama Coming Down the Mountain, which was nominated for a Bafta.
This year has been a particularly successful one for Jessop. As well as appearing in 2021’s biggest TV show, he has been filming a Steven Spielberg-produced second world war drama, Masters of the Air, for Apple TV+ (those are the rumours, at least, after he was photographed on set). He was awarded an honorary doctorate at the University of Winchester and, most significant of all, added his voice to the campaign for the Down Syndrome bill, which passed its second reading in the Commons in November.
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