Guest Author - Pam Lawrence

There is nothing more appealing than an actor who just won't sell out. I've written previously about one of my favourites, Chris Eccleston, who most definitely fits the mould. Now it's the turn of one of British telly's hottest properties, John Simm. If you're watching the second series of the utterly unique Life on Mars, you'll know who exactly who I mean.

Simm plays the perplexed time travelling/comatose/ mad copper, Sam Tyler. And sorry gang, but the second series is the last- definitely. John Simm is a guy who knows when to bow out, at the top of his game. The rumour (and that's all it is at the minute) that he may be cast as Dr Who's arch nemesis The Master has fuelled almost as much tabloid speculation in the UK as who is going to replace the Doctor himself.

Funnily enough, Simm almost didn't take the part of Sam Tyler. He told the Times recently that he almost binned the script, as it seemed so daft on paper. The show, which began as something of a cult hit, went on to win an International Emmy, and attracted lots of attention for it's leading man. Ironic really, as mainstream and Simm are not usually uttered in the same breath.

He's another Northern boy, born in Leeds in 1971. As a lad, he moved to the unprepossessing mill town of Nelson, in Lancashire. He got a taste for showbiz at a young age, and, leading a double life (even then !) he took to the stage with his Dad at weekends, singing in local clubs. None of Simm's mates knew of their duo, Us2. He later formed his own band, Magic Alex, and even supported seminal 80s band Echo and The Bunnymen on tour.

Studying at the Drama Centre in London, Simm was a young man with considerable angst. Surrounded by middle class students with accents far different from his own, he insisted on maintaining his Northern identity. In the late eighties, the baggy trousered, ecstasy fuelled club scene that was Manchester was the hub of British culture, as Liverpool was in the 60s.

North was where it was at, including great telly, and the young Simm landed his first really juicy role in 1995, playing the 17 year old psychopathic killer Graham Nash in the Cracker episode Best Boys. He so impressed that great writer of the gritty Northern script, Jimmy McGovern, that he secured the leading role of Danny Cavanagh in the drama The Lakes.

A life of happy go lucky clubbing in the 90s came to an abrupt end, ironically, after Simm took the role of Jip in the 1999 movie Human Traffic. The role of the pill popping partier meant Simm could go nowhere without every quote from the movie being thrown at him !

Simm's grimmest role came in 2002 as he played the tortured Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment, but he got to sing again as New Order's front man Bernard Sumner in Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People. The success of State of Play in 2003 led him across the pond to Hollywood, but he couldn't bear the auditioning process, and trying to start afresh, after all he'd accomplished in the UK.

Instead, he remains an actor with street cred, an unlikely sex symbol who does deadpan wonderfully, and actually looks pretty cute in those wingy lapels and cuban heeled boots. And the public love him for it. I can't wait to see what he does next.