John Simm/Sam Tyler Stocking
Click to viewJohn Simm...Time/Space Cowboy
Oh, it's great to have found some new John Simm fans this year! Simm is my oldest TV boyfriend. He's practically my TV hubby. I've loved him since I was about 10 and he appeared in a naff little sitcom called Men of the World, playing a whiny nancyboy called Kendal who needed to be taught how to be a man. Ha!! Yes, I've always loved the beta males, haven't I? I've watched Simm grow up on screen and yet never look any older thanks to his cute boyish Peter Pan looks. I'm a particular fan of his TV career (for some reason his film choices were never so good). He's really the TV treasure of my country.
Sam Tyler finally made Simm a mainstream star (much as he hates it). I love everything about Life on Mars but my disappointment with its sequel Ashes to Ashes tells me that Sam/Simm was the heart of this show. I know people gripe about LoM being too short but I think the conclusion was so satisfying. Of course I was thrown into confusion when A2A told us that Sam Tyler had died (again?) in a high speed chase. Knowing Sam I have to wonder whether he really died or reincarnated himself by time travelling into another body. Let's see...where could Sam have woken up the next time?
Other Great Simm Roles on British TV
Bill Nash in Cracker
Anyone fancy some John Simm ho-yay? In one of his earliest TV roles Simm plays Bill Nash, a disturbed teenage murderer who gets his gay boss to fall in love with him and protect him as they go on the run together. Yes, Simm has always been good at playing those vulnerable lunatic characters. His work on Cracker caught the attention of esteemed Brit screenwriter Jimmy McGovern who would later cast him in the lead role of his new drama series The Lakes.
Danny Kavanagh in The Lakes
Ooh! Pace! Did you know you can now watch the whole of the first episode on youtube? Check out this playlist! Ooh, I love The Lakes. Gritty tragic dark humoured drama. The characters are brilliant. Simm plays Danny, a cheeky Scouser with a gambling addiction and a love of poetry who leaves the city for the Lake District and soon becomes the town's scapegoat. This show was notorious for its very graphic sex scenes so if you want to see Simm naked...just saying.
Rodya Raskolnikov in Crime & Punishment
I was a big fan of the book so I was delighted to see Simm in the staring role as Raskolnikov, one of the most fascinating cerberal murderers in literature. The production value of this drama series was excellent; a great adaptation with Simm suitably crazy and compelling in the lead role. Oh and teh sexy long hair!
Ace in Canturbury Tales
I had almost forgotten that Simm stared in one of the mordern Canturbury Tales series! His episode wasn't the best of the run, but still pretty engaging. He plays Ace who (in this scene) finds himself the loser in a love triangle. He doesn't take it very well and attempts to burn the happy couple. "You're only being nice to me because you're covered in petrol." Oh, how we love psycho-Simm.
Daniel Appleton in Sex Traffic
This drama series is seriously good, but very very hard to watch. Simm's Daniel is the only character who really softens the blow. He plays a reporter/charity worker who gets caught up in an investigation into victims of the sex trade. Really disturbing stuff, but Simm's sensitive bespectacled everyman helps you through it.
Edward Sexby in The Devil's Whore
Simm's latest TV role is no less gritty and powerful. He's a battle-scarred Puritan soldier in the English civil war, in love with a woman who doesn't love him back, wouldn't you know it. Sexby is a much more mature role for Simm. He finally looks his age and commands the screen with such ease.
Sam Tyler Theory by Psyche-8
Because I know that pace loves her theorising!
There are two Sams. One is a 37 year old man living in 1973 called Sam Williams. The other is a 37 year old man living in 2006 called Sam Tyler.
Both Sams have a great deal in common, so much so that you could say that they are living parallel lives albeit 33 years apart. There also bear an uncanny resemblance to one another.
DCI Sam Williams is a forward-thinking officer at Hyde police station in Manchester in 1973. When he was 12, he was involved in a coach crash which claimed the lives of both his parents and left him in a catatonic state for a while. He recovered, grew up and joined the police force. At the age of 37, he was offered the chance to go undercover as a DI, working to bring down the corrupt DCI Gene Hunt. He collaborated with his mentor, DCI Frank Morgan to come up with an alternate identity as Sam Tyler, a name he took from a grave stone near where his (Sam Williams’s) parents were buried, and he set off on his assignment.
DCI Sam Tyler is a forward-thinking officer for Greater Manchester police in 2006. When he was 12, he was involved in a coach crash where he was injured but no-one else was seriously hurt. He recovered, grew up and joined the police force. At the age of 37, he was in the midst of a difficult case that he felt powerless to solve, and which culminated in the kidnapping of his girlfriend. Hating feeling so helpless, Sam found himself wishing that he could be somewhere where he could really make a difference.
On the same day, at the same time, in the same place, exactly 33 years apart, both Sams were knocked down by a car. Sam Williams was killed instantly but Sam Tyler survived and ended up in a coma. However, because in that instant the separate timelines somehow overlapped, Sam Tyler’s spirit was transported across time and he woke up in Sam Williams’s body in 1973. Because of the fortunate coincidence of Sam Tyler’s name and Sam Williams’s assumed name, Sam Tyler from 2006 was able to seamlessly assume Sam Williams’s whole identity. Frank Morgan merely assumed that Sam Williams had successfully convinced everyone that he was Sam Tyler, little realising the truth and simply putting his strange behaviour down to amnesia from the crash. In the scene when he’s showing Sam the graves and telling him about his real existence as Sam Williams, there’s a very good reason why Sam has no memory of any of these events - because he’s a different person.
However, while Sam Tyler’s body lay in a coma he was caught between the two timelines, hearing sounds and voices from 2006. He remained in this limbo-like state for a year and then finally woke up. When he did, he realised that he had a choice - to remain in 2006 or to return to 1973 where he could really make a difference. Because of the existence of Sam Williams in 1973, Sam Tyler had a ‘doorway’ to the past. He could go back, be Sam Williams for the rest of his life and no-one would be any the wiser. Thus, that was the choice he made and he knew that the only way he could go back and stay in 1973 permanently was to sever all links with 2006. Which is why he committed suicide. The body of Sam Tyler will eventually die. When that happens, Sam will be free. He'll stop hearing voices and be fully in 1973.
So, what do you think? Good explanation?
There’s a tinge of The Man Who Haunted Himself (the old Roger Moore movie) here.
Merry Christmas pacejunkie
and alixzin