When John Simm agreed to take part in a genealogy TV series with his close friend and frequent co-star Philip Glenister, he wasn’t anticipating uncovering a huge family secret.
But after taking a DNA test for ITV’s DNA Journey with Ancestry, he found out that the man he grew up believing was his birth dad was not his biological father.
So, the episode ended up taking an unexpected turn as he went on a journey to learn more about the paternal side of the family, which resulted in him meeting a half-sister who he previously hadn’t known existed.
At the very beginning of the instalment, it’s revealed that the two actors, who famously starred on the TV show Life on Mars together, took DNA tests three months before filming was due to take place.
While speaking to the camera, John, 54, laughed in an apparently nervous manner as he revealed how ‘unexpected’ his ancestry discovery was.
Explaining that his dad, who he thought was his biological dad, died in 2015, John recalled how he asked his mum if it would be ok if he delved into his family history.
‘And then this revelation came out. Anyway, to cut a long story short, the DNA results came back and my dad is not my dad,’ he stated.
John revealed that when he spoke to his mum about taking the DNA test, she then admitted something to him that she never had before – that around the time of his conception, his parents had briefly broken up and seen other people before getting back together.
When John’s mum saw the doctor, she was assured that the dates lined up with her pregnancy after she questioned when her baby might have been conceived.
‘It spun my world and everything I thought I knew wasn’t real in a way,’ the Doctor Who star shared, adding that his mum was also extremely shocked by the revelation.
‘Out of everybody in my family, I was always closest to my Dad. When I was younger, we used to go round clubs playing guitar and singing, so I’m glad my Dad isn’t alive to see this, because I’m sure he’d be shocked and upset by it as well. He was my Dad.’
John was adamant that he wanted to continue with making the programme, despite being a very private person.
He also admitted that growing up, he always felt ‘a little bit different’ to his family, but couldn’t put his finger on why that might be.
Having thought that his biological dad was Ronald Simm, he was informed that his biological father was actually a man named Terence Naylor, who died in 1998 at the age of 58, when the actor was 28 years old.
John learnt that Terence’s parents married in 1939 when his mother was only 16 years old, shortly before his father was called up for the Second World War. Terence ended up being adopted by his mother’s aunt, and so stayed within the family when he grew up.
In a surprising parallel, the actor explained that the dad he grew up with was abandoned by his mum and put in an orphanage in his childhood.
But that wasn’t the only connection that John would uncover, as Terence spent much of his life – including his childhood – in working men’s clubs.
As John and his dad performed on stage in the area that Terence lived, there’s a strong likelihood that their paths might have crossed, as Terence even managed one of the clubs after moving on from his work as a plasterer.
The actor was presented with marriage certificates for Terence, who married three times, as well as finding out that his half-sister Karen was born three years before him from his biological father’s first marriage.
John found out that Terence and his first wife’s marriage was most likely already nearing its end when he was conceived, as by 1973 – three years after he was born – Terence was in a relationship with someone else.
From his second marriage, Terence raised his wife’s four children as his own, creating a large blended family with his daughter Karen.
Eventually, John was able to meet up with Karen in Yorkshire, who also had no idea that she had a half-brother, let alone the fact that he was famous.
Karen gave her half-brother some more photos of his biological dad, with the resemblance in their appearance truly uncanny as she told him that he had inherited his father’s eyes, especially when he laughed.
‘I can’t believe them eyes, it’s so surreal,’ she admitted, before showing John a video of his father speaking at a wedding.
John looked incredibly moved throughout the episode, not only to uncover discoveries about his family that he never knew, but also to do so with his friend Philip at his side.
John Simm and Philip Glenister’s DNA Journey with Ancestry airs on Wednesday October 9 at 9pm on ITV1, ITVX, STV and STV Player.
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