But first we’ve got an extended interview for you that we recorded a few weeks ago. It was so good we have had to play it long. She won the prestigious Ivor Novello Rising Star award in May and has built a huge army of fans since supporting Hosier on tour around the UK this summer. Listeners, you know I love my music, I think I bang on about it enough. I sing terribly on the podcast but I listen intensely, and I love this woman. I’ve been waiting months to get her on. It’s singer/songwriter, the brilliant Victoria Canal. VICTORIA- I mean, you know what, you were talking about mental health on this podcast, which is super important too I think. It’s tough out here. It’s tough to be labelled [voice breaks] and not have much control over how you’re perceived by the world. It’s definitely something that I struggle with sometimes, you know what I mean. Wollaston, Sam (3 September 2007). "Last night's TV: Coming Down the Mountain". The Guardian. London.

Before Line of Duty, Jessop also appeared in the likes of Holby City, Casualty, Monroe and Doctors.He describes it in the book as the "most important campaign" he’s been part of, writing: "Because for too long people ignored our gifts and hid us away. We didn’t learn anything and did not have jobs or get married. The Down Syndrome Act is to make sure everyone with Down syndrome gets a proper education, with teachers understanding how we learn, better healthcare and real employment opportunities." I don’t like the word ‘disability’. To me, Kassie is differently able, and she was as capable as any other member of the cast or crew Kate Winslet, actor

NIKKI- You have lots of fans, Victoria, but one of them is Chris Martin from Coldplay. Didn’t he describe Swan Song as one of the best songs ever written? He has made a number of documentaries about Down’s syndrome and other learning disabilities with his brother, Will, including Growing Up Down’s on BBC Three. In 2022 he was part of a BBC Panorama documentary called Will the NHS Care for Me? about how people with learning disabilities are more than twice as likely to die from avoidable causes than the rest of the British public.But we're also still trying to break out of the typecasting – victims, hello? It's time we had some heroes. So yeah, things are better but my take is that there's more to be done.” We can be proud and honoured that it has been passed,” says Jessop. “It can also be history-making, changing the world for the better. We really have waited long enough to be treated equally and it really is time now for people living with Down’s syndrome to have the same chances in life that anyone else has, to live their lives to the full, and not get hidden away.” Tommy appears to be close to his parents, especially with his mother Jane, who he recently appeared on Lorraine with. However its his brother who he seems closest too - the best friends spend lots of time working together as well as personal endeavours. Through Gottsagen’s sheer force of will (not to mention cooperation from Shia LaBeouf and Dakota Johnson), The Peanut Butter Falcon finally hit cinemas in 2019, and became one of the highest-grossing indie films of the year.

Published on 6th July, the publisher says it is one of the first memoirs written for an adult audience by an author with Down’s syndrome, in their own words. In 2021, Jessop – who is also an ambassador for the charity Mencap and patron of the National Down Syndrome Policy Group – helped campaign for the passing of the new Down Syndrome Bill, which saw him speak outside Parliament, among other things. VICTORIA- Yeah, I think that’s the other thing, my personality is just I’m like incredibly open, to be honest; maybe to a fault sometimes. Jessop, aged 36, hit the headlines last year playing Terry Boyle in the hit show Line of Duty. He was the first actor with Down’s syndrome to star in a prime-time BBC drama, playing Ben in Mark Haddon’s BAFTA nominated Coming Down the Mountain, following this with guest lead roles in Casualty, Holby City and other TV roles and radio plays for BBC Radio 4. Tommy is the winner of various Best Actor awards for his short films and also the first professional actor with Down’s syndrome to tour theatres as Hamlet and the first to become a full voting member of BAFTA. Jessop’s love of performing started early – by his teenage years, it was clear this was something he wanted to pursue. Only a couple of theatre companies in the country were available for actors with Down syndrome at the time, but they were too far away for Jessop – so eventually, in 2005, his mum founded Winchester’s Blue Apple Theatre. Acting remains his "greatest passion in life" and he has big goals (some of which are "top secret" for now).Like more than 3 million other people around the world, Kassie Mundhenk sat enthralled by the finale of Mare of Easttown when it dropped this summer – attracting such record-breaking viewing figures that HBO Max proceeded to crash just as Kate Winslet’s Detective Sheehan apprehended the series’ murder culprit. I like playing with syncopation a lot and rhythm. I hear the part in my head but I can’t quite play it the way that I want to, so I’ll just layer the parts in a way that actually sounds rhythmic and cool in your ears. I have so much fun doing that. That’s the stuff I love.

WILL- Because you are warm and funny and wise and smart. But there are also things that you care about very deeply, and there’s work that we need to do to make the world a better place for people with Down’s Syndrome. But obviously one of the things that you’ve been doing, Tommy, is your campaigning. I want more casting directors and producers to give us TV and film roles. And I hate being labelled as a victim.” It is why he wants to conquer Hollywood with his teddy bear. Besides, he looks really rather snazzy in a tux. VICTORIA- Me too, they’re amazing. They were so sweet to me and have been so supportive since. Actually because of that day they put Swan Song on their pre-show playlist, so at every one of their shows it’s playing before their set, which is pretty amazing. VICTORIA- No one has a perfect life. Also that’s my experience being maybe not judged, but maybe pitied or observed a certain way because of my difference, or maybe I’m only granted certain things because of my disability. But you could say the same for anyone who’s conventionally pretty or anyone who’s queer who’s only getting a queer spotlight. Just all these things that are happening right now because of a label. And it’s so interesting that we’re in a time where representation is expanding, which is so positive, but then we’re still being defined by these things that are so one-dimensional. It’s like we’re all incredibly complex beings with multiple facets and so much to our stories, and so to be defined by one thing is just really isolating sometimes.

WILL- There was something a little bit surreal about it, because obviously that was a scene that Tommy and I had written for one of the biggest stars in the world on the off-chance he was up for reading it. And next thing I know I was there behind the camera with Tommy and Kit Harrington facing off in a kind of climactic showdown [laughs]. And what was amazing about it was obviously Kit is a wonderful actor, but Tommy was very much holding his own. There was a kind of power balance between the two of them, and I was like wow, that’s incredible. And as a kind of proof of concept for what we could go on to do with the superhero movie it felt very, very exciting. KIT- Interior, underground science lab day. Roger the Superhero is facing off against his nemesis, the billionaire bad guy, Noel Scum. It’s quite simple, Roger: your DNA is a mistake, a glitch in the code. You have an extra chromosome that corrupts the rest of it. Osborn, Michael (31 August 2007). "Haddon Debut Captures Teen Crisis". BBC . Retrieved 10 October 2009. Few fashion careers begin quite as auspiciously as Madeline Stuart’s did. After making her first appearance at New York fashion week in 2015, the Australian model found herself one of the most tweeted-about people in the world that day. “I felt amazing,” enthuses Stuart, who studied with a coach from Juilliard before her debut. “Preparing was a little stressful, and there was a moment when I needed a quiet space to try to relax, but now I don’t need to prepare. The runway is my happy place, where I truly feel alive.” British actor and Line of Duty star Tommy Jessop has today been announced as the latest Ambassador for Mencap - a UK learning disability A learning disability is to do with the way someone's brain works. It makes it harder for someone to learn, understand or do things. charity.