Dorset’s own up and coming film and TV actor Jamie Bacon is standing on a balcony at his parents’ home with views across to Poole Harbour and talking about the kind of career that most of his contemporaries could only dream of.
He’s one of the stars of White Lines, a 10-part Netflix drama set in Manchester and Ibiza that launched in mid-May, and his latest cinema film, Brighton, directed by Stephen Cookson, is due for release later this year
The movie, based on a Steven Berkoff play, stars Phil Davis and Larry Lamb as a pair of ageing East London rockers returning to the seaside resort for the first time in 40 years.
In flashbacks to their youth Jamie plays the young version of the Larry Lamb character. “It was so enjoyable,” he tells me. “Being able to watch really experienced actors like Phil and Larry at work was such a privilege.
“Marion Bayley (partner of the director Mike Leigh, recently seen as the Queen Mum in The Crown) is also in it. You can learn a huge amount from people like that.”
And there you have it. Jamie, who initially trained at Poole’s Jellicoe Theatre, is looking like the man of the moment. At 27, and just four years out of drama school, he has barely stopped working. There are several films and a body of TV work already in the can, yet he displays no arrogance. Just a willingness to work hard and learn.
The industry has responded well. Last year he appeared, uncredited, as ‘Cool Dude’ in the Elton John biopic Rocketman but, perhaps most impressive, is the success of his highly-praised film Into the Mirror, a moving story of a young man struggling with gender identity.
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