As DI Sam Tyler in Life On Mars, John Simm discovered his world in a spin after waking up within the Seventies.
However the actor now faces a life-changing puzzle of his personal – on studying that the person he idolised and thought was his organic father, the truth is, was not.
The revelation got here after Simm, 54, took a genetic check for ITV‘s DNA Journey.
Mockingly, he appeared on the present solely to help his pal and fellow Life On Mars co-star Philip Glenister, 61, who performed the brutal and politically incorrect DCI Gene Hunt.
The 2 males met 17 years in the past after they turned the actors behind the policing duo – and Simm mentioned he solely participated within the present so Glenister wasn’t on his personal.
Philip Glenister (left) and John Simm (proper) on ITV’s DNA Journey which is able to air on October 9
John Simm additionally learns that he has a half-sister Karen whom he meets on ITV’s DNA Journey
John Simm’s true organic father Terry Smith is pictured, as a part of the DNA Journey episode
Simm mentioned: ‘It is turned out to be such an enormous factor in my life and all I used to be doing was a favour for Phil so he did not need to do it on his personal. It spun my world, and every thing I assumed I knew, wasn’t actual.’
Leeds-born Simm began on this planet of leisure as a younger teenager, taking part in guitar in a band alongside his musician father Ronald.
Ronald died in 2015 and speaking about his grief, Simm as soon as mentioned in an interview: ‘When somebody dies, you are left with this big black gap in your life.
‘Folks say, ‘You may recover from it,’ however I do not need to recover from it. I all the time need to bear in mind my dad. I’ve nonetheless obtained his quantity in my cellphone.
‘Once in a while I see one thing on TV that I feel he’d like and I choose up my cellphone to textual content him, nonetheless.’
On the fifth season of DNA Journey, he remembers a dialog he had together with his mom earlier than taking the check for the programme.
He mentioned: ‘After they had me, within the Sixties, they had been each younger. They had been collectively after which they cut up up and had been each with different individuals after which they obtained again collectively after which they’d me. And I would by no means heard this story earlier than.’
John Simm (left) appeared on the present to help Life On Mars co-star Philip Glenister (proper)
John Simm (left) took a genetic check for ITV’s DNA Journey alongside co-star Philip Glenister
Philip Glenister (left) and John Simm (proper) are pals and Life On Mars co-stars
After the DNA revelation, Simm thought-about pulling out of the programme however determined to utilise the consultants on the present to seek out out about his organic father.
Through the episode he’s instructed that his organic father has handed away however discovers that he lived in the identical space as Simm and would drink on the identical working males’s golf equipment that he and his father performed in.
‘The factor that blows my thoughts, me and my dad, we performed round right here a great deal of instances, we undoubtedly performed right here lots and he may need been in the identical pub one evening and watched me play,’ he mentioned.
‘I can not get it out of my head, as a result of we performed this space within the 80s and he was right here, and he was in working in males’s golf equipment. It is a kind of mad, Again To The Future, Life On Mars issues.’
Father-of-two Simm additionally learns that he has a half-sister Karen whom he meets on the finish of the episode and who shares reminiscences with him about their organic father.
John Simm (left) and Phil Glenister (proper) will seem on a brand new episode of ITV’s DNA Journey
Philip Glenister performed DCI Gene Hunt and John Simm performed DI Sam Tyler in Life On Mars
John Simm and his spouse Kate Magowan at an English Nationwide Ballet celebration in London in 2013
In addition to Life On Mars, Simm starred alongside Dougray Scott within the TV adaptation of the novel Crime by creator Irvine Welsh.
The ITV drama adopted the exploits of troubled Edinburgh detective Ray Lennox – performed by Scott.
Filmed in Edinburgh and Glasgow, the primary collection was broadcast in November 2021.
Simm performed Gareth Horsborough, often known as Mr Confectioner, who was the principle antagonist in each collection.
The brand new episodes of DNA Journey may also function Ricky Tomlinson and Sue Johnston and James Nesbitt and Sarah Parish.
John Simm and Philip Glenister’s DNA Journey with Ancestry airs on Wednesday, October 9 at 9pm on ITV1, ITVX, STV and STV Participant