Life On Mars star John Simm, 54, signed up for TV show DNA Journey With Ancestry as a favour for pal and fellow actor, Phil Glenister, so they could research their family trees together
Acclaimed actor John Simm's family life has been turned upside down by a new ITV series, which leaves him saying "everything I thought I knew wasn’t real".
The programme begins with John recalling an email followed by a conversation he had with his mum Brenda before he took his DNA test as filming began last year. His dad Ronald Simm died in 2015. READ MORE: 'Very common' Irish name for boys is the 'most mispronounced' in the world John, who was brought up with two sisters, says that he considered pulling out of the film but then decided to utilise the experts to find out about his biological father called Terence. He says he is glad his dad Ron is not around to learn the news which has "floored" his mum.
John says: “The thing that blows my mind, me and my dad, we played around here loads of times, we definitely played here a lot and he might have been in the same pub one night and watched me play.” There are moving scenes as John then sees photos of his biological father and learns more about him, including that he married and had a daughter, John’s half-sister Karen he never knew he had.
Speaking to Karen, he said: "If he happened to be in on a Friday or a Saturday night in one of those clubs, he would have seen me play. Wow, that's mad, isn't it? Yeah, that's really bizarre. Mind blowing."
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