SPENT some time yesterday with John Thomson talking about a new ITV1 conspiracy thriller called Mobile.
More of that on another day. First a couple of tales to relate about John’s recent brushes with both Dame Helen Mirren and Sir Alan Sugar.
John is pictured as businessman Sir Alan Prentice in this Sunday’s Kombat Opera Presents: The Applicants.
It’s the first of a series of BBC2 comic operas inspired by TV shows, starting with Alan Sugar’s The Apprentice.
“The look is just uncanny, really. It’s great. I feel like I’m a proper character actor, because it doesn’t look anything like me,” said John.

“I watched two episodes of The Apprentice to try and encapsulate it. But I didn’t know what was the front for cameras and what was the real Alan Sugar.
“It’s very avant-garde, but I think for those people that have seen Jerry Springer: The Opera, they’ll embrace it.
“I don’t actually sing in it. I’m the narrator. And because it’s operatic, I had to heighten the performance.”
Currently also starring as Charlie Darling in BBC1’s New Street Law, John is shooting a BBC3 pilot on Monday called Sound.
“It’s about the present day Manchester music industry. I play a bitter wannabe Tony Wilson.”
He’s also working at Shepperton Studios near London on a children’s fantasy film called Inkheart – alongside Oscar nominated Dame Helen Mirren, who finds out her fate when the awards take place early Monday morning our time.
“It’s very exciting. Every time she comes on set she gets an ovation because she’s won another bloody award,” laughed John.
“She said to me, ‘Oh God, I’ve had enough. I’m quite shy of it, really, John.’ She’s lovely.”