Luke MINTZ
Jane Jessop, mother of Line of Duty actor Tommy, tells Luke Mintz how proud she is that he is on the television
In some countries Down’s has almost disappeared, as terminations rise
‘I’m really thankful I was never offered a test to see if he had Down’s’
Jane Jessop tried her best to remain philosophical on January 19 1985, when she was told by a doctor that her newborn son, Tommy, had Down’s syndrome, the genetic condition caused by the presence of an extra chromosome in a baby’s cells.
She still remembers being “very worried” about how the diagnosis might affect her toddler, William, and wondered whether other mothers would look at her differently.
“My first reaction was to wonder why God had sent this baby to us,” Jessop, a former marketing executive, remembers now, over the phone from her home. “What was God’s purpose, what did he want me to do? But maybe it was more about God’s plan for Tommy.”
In her tired, postnatal state, she could not then have predicted that her son would go on to star in a primetime BBC series, one of the first actors with Down’s to do so. She is one of almost nine million across the UK tuning in each week to police drama Line of Duty, in which Tommy, now 36, plays murder suspect Terry Boyle.
Down’s affects about 40,000 people in the UK and life expectancy has increased dramatically since the 1950s; somebody with Down’s can now expect to live to their late fifties, at least, with some living well into their seventies. But it’s still remarkably rare to see actors with Down’s on screen (a notable exception being Sarah Gordy, 44, who made her name in Call the Midwife and Upstairs Downstairs).
Rarer still is for actors with Down’s to play more ambiguous characters, as Jessop does in Line of Duty. Loosely inspired by the 1999 murder of Jill Dando, the plot of the new series focuses on a TV reporter who is executed on her doorstep. Tommy plays the local man with learning difficulties fingered by police as a suspect. In tonight’s episode, he is pulled back in for questioning.
In the first episode of the current series, Line of Duty character
Ted Hastings referred to Jessop’s character as an “oddball”, a comment interpreted by some as a reference to his Down’s syndrome. Critics included Jim Gamble, former deputy directorgeneral of the National Crime Squad, who said the phrase would have no place in modern policing. Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio said “oddball” was not meant as a reference to learning disabilities, adding that his series is supposed to show policing in all its gory, un-PC detail.
Jessop says: “I didn’t think it was a big deal. Jed’s a very talented writer; I feel he’s bringing into the light things that need to be brought into the light.” She prefers instead to focus on the joy and warmth Tommy has brought into her world. “He’s enriched us enormously. I’m delighted with the young man he’s turned out to be.”
It’s a stark contrast to the health issues he faced in his first year – a typically tough time for parents of babies with Down’s. “Tommy’s prognosis was very poor. But I would say to parents, don’t believe all those pessimistic forecasts. When Tommy turned one, he kind of woke up. It was as though the sun came out; he became smiley and started learning. He reacted to everything, whereas he hadn’t in his first year. When we came into the room, he would bounce up and down. He attracted love.”
Most people with Down’s experience some form of intellectual impairment; for many, language is delayed and memory impaired. But Tommy’s communication skills thrived with the help of music; he loved being sung to and playing with little bells on sticks. He once said that when he dances, he “becomes the music. It’s as if he disappears into himself,” says Jessop.
Tommy was part of the first cohort of children with Down’s to attend a mixture of mainstream and specialist schooling (before the 1981 Education Act, disabled children were mostly segregated from their peers). It enriched his childhood, as well as those of his classmates, who learnt to appreciate difference. Aged 10, he became a strong reader virtually overnight; he was fascinated with online quizzes and began to memorise Trivial Pursuit answers so he could beat his family. “It was a bit cheeky – and good practice for learning lines now.”
Jessop admits to being a little sceptical when a teenage Tommy said he wanted to be an actor. “We didn’t really believe him. We were thinking: ‘Well, Tommy likes books, why doesn’t he work in the library?’”
But his big break came when he was 20, when he was one of a handful across the UK accepted on to the BBC’s talent fund for disabled actors. He starred opposite Nicholas Hoult ( The Favourite, Tolkien) in his first role, Coming Down the Mountain, at the Chichester theatre. “I have this image of tiny little Tommy doing a soliloquy on this huge, black, shiny stage, with 600 schoolchildren watching him.”
Determined for her son to succeed in an industry not always accommodating to disabled actors, Jessop formed Blue Apple Theatre, a Winchester-based drama company for people with learning difficulties. In 2012, they toured a production of Hamlet in full Shakespearean language – a performance praised by actor Sir Mark Rylance as “phenomenal”. Four members of the cast had Down’s and another two had other learning disabilities, as shown in the Emmynominated documentary, Growing Up Down’s, made by Tommy’s filmmaker brother, William.
Jessop is frightened by the prospect that Tommy’s condition might at some point be eliminated from the population. All pregnant women in the UK are now offered a free prenatal blood test screening for Down’s, first approved by the UK’s National Screening Council in 2016 (it replaced a more invasive test which carried of a risk of miscarriage). Nine out of 10 in the UK terminate their pregnancy after receiving a positive diagnosis, according to a 2013 government report. The condition has almost disappeared in some countries, like Iceland, where termination rates approach 100 per cent.
Jessop says: “I’m really thankful I was never offered a test, because that is a horrible decision for parents to take. It’s ironic: now [people with Down’s] finally have the chance to learn and show us who they really are, and society and scientists are trying to deprive them of the chance to live. I’m not talking about abortion itself, I’m just talking about the choice of doing it because a child will have Down’s. I think having a child with Down’s syndrome is all about love. Some of my best times are when it’s just me and Tommy on location – he’s really good company. Think about your family, friends and colleagues – how boring would it be if everyone was the same.
“And the tragedy is that many adults with Down’s syndrome are aware of this. Tommy himself feels very scarred by it.”
Her views are shared by actress Sally Phillips, whose son Olly was born with Down’s in 2004. Phillips told the Telegraph in 2016 that raising her son has been much more fun than she anticipated after seeing the grim face of the doctor who gave her Olly’s diagnosis. “I think I would have been really served by having someone around standing up and saying: ‘This is a good thing’,” she said.
Speaking to the Telegraph, Tommy says it was a “great honour” to star in Line of Duty. “I reckon people living with Down’s syndrome should be given the chance to be on TV, because they really can show what they are capable of as actors, and in life in general.”