Actor Dylan Llewellyn looks back: ‘I warned Mum that Big Boys was a bit raw. Thankfully she never commented on the glory hole scene’

Interactive Dylan and Jackie Llewellyn in 1998 and 2025. Later photograph: Pål Hansen/The Guardian. Styling: Andie Redman. Hair, makeup and grooming: Alexis Day. Archive photograph: courtesy of Dylan Llewellyn Born in Reigate in 1992, the actor Dylan Llewellyn graduated from Rada in 2011. He began his career with roles in Hollyoaks and Call the Midwife, but is best known for playing James Maguire in the Channel 4 comedy Derry Girls and Jack in its sitcom Big Boys. He competes in the latest series of Celebrity Race Across the World with his mother, Jackie, on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Dylan This picture shows the love between a mother and a son. Or, more specifically: that I am a mummy’s boy. That’s a Crystal Palace FC shirt. Does Mum support them? I’m not sure she has any choice. My earliest memory of Mum is being sick on her. We were on a holiday in Sardinia and while we were watching a show at the hotel, I started to feel unwell, so I turned around and puked. Not sure why I aimed it at her. I guess I just wanted to make sure she would console me – as if it would bring us closer. She was mainly disgusted, which is fair enough. Mum was very patient with me. I felt a lot of love, and my two big brothers did as well. Although there were times when we might have taken advantage of her kindness – like when we slid downstairs on a bodyboard, or tried to trick passersby by putting a £10 note on a fishing rod out of the window. For most of my childhood, I was really shy. I liked being in my own world and would hide behind my mum’s legs if guests ever came over. I hid a lot, actually. I got good at spying. So good that I decided to hide from the estate agent when she brought people round to view the house we were selling, so I could give Mum feedback. There was one time they found me in a cupboard. It was really awkward. They opened the door and said, “Oh my God! There’s a child in here!” When I was about four, a teacher asked me, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I replied, “A robot.” As I got older I had aspirations to be a skateboarder, even though I’d only done it twice. I had no idea I wanted to be an actor. These days, most of my head is preoccupied with learning lines, and really I should call Mum more. Because I am still a mummy’s boy Aside from a brief turn as a handbag-carrying robin in a school play, my acting ambitions first revealed themselves through impressions. I would pretend to be kids at school, teachers sometimes. I would be the class clown and wanted to make my friends happy, but always to my own detriment. Once a teacher took a phone call and I decided to mimic her, and she caught me. Everyone in the class gasped, and I got a detention. My first proper brush with fame came when I was five. Gaby Roslin visited my school to film a TV show about nativity plays. She asked me a question about what I wanted for Christmas, but I got distracted by this big fluffy thing, the boom mic, and by the time I answered she had asked me another question. I ended up saying that I had an Action Man on top of my Christmas tree. Everyone started laughing at me, and I cried. School was frustrating. I constantly felt as if I wasn’t smart enough. I would get in trouble for not completing my homework, even though I was trying as hard as I could. I was nine years old when I moved from my local primary to More House school, which specialises in supporting students with autism and dyslexia. That place saved me completely. When I realised I wasn’t dumb, I was dyslexic, I could finally be a bit kinder to myself. I landed my first acting role a year before I went to Rada. It was a KitKat ad. I had to open a lunchbox and take out a KitKat. A great start. But my first proper breakout role was in Derry Girls. Growing up watching The Inbetweeners, it was my dream to do a Channel 4 comedy show. The audition arrived just at the right time – I was really struggling to get roles, and working at a coffee shop. Derry Girls changed everything. I had no idea how big it would be. Big Boys came soon after. I semi-warned Mum before she saw it – saying she might need to brace herself as it was going to be “a bit raw”. I know she has watched it all, but, thankfully, she has never felt the need to comment on the glory hole scene. These days, most of my head is preoccupied with learning lines, and really I should call Mum more. Because I am still a mummy’s boy. She is the best mum ever – beautiful, kind, strong and someone who has supported me through everything. Jackie When this was taken, we had just moved from Reigate in Surrey to West Sussex. It looks like a brief moment of tranquillity. Dylan liked to try to catch people entering the house with his bow and arrows or water guns. He was always up to something. I have three sons – three under three at one point. By the time Dylan came along I was pretty relaxed, and Dylan was very easygoing. Aside from the ambushing. We’ve always been good friends and liked to watch daytime TV together, mainly the quizzes. In the evening we’d snuggle up with a blanket and hot chocolate, and have the dogs all around us. He was a good boy, even as a teenager. Girls weren’t really involved. He looked very young. He still does. I just wish I could tell that little boy not to lose heart if school doesn’t come easily Trying to do homework together was very stressful. I struggled at school, too, so I would be in tears with him, trying to do his maths. I eventually found out he was being left in a corner, forgotten about by the teachers. There were a lot of bright kids at his school, which made Dylan feel like even more of a failure, which is so sad as he really wasn’t. Even when they cast for the school plays they put the academic kids in the big roles. Apart from the role of the robin. Dylan had been written off but at More House, suddenly he thrived. There was a drama teacher who saw his potential as an actor. I had to drive nearly an hour each way every day to get him there, but it was worth it. Related: Athlete Harry Aikines-Aryeetey looks back: ‘By five, all I wanted to be was a Gladiator’ When Dylan was 16, he was spotted by an agent and soon got lots of auditions. I was so proud to see him doing so well, although when he did theatre I would be anxious. He was in War Horse and I couldn’t relax for a single second; I am still the worried mum inside and knew he had always found remembering lines tough because of his dyslexia. What he’s overcome to get to where he is today is incredible. Although I did have to cover my eyes when his bare bottom turned up on Big Boys. Dylan and I have spent a lot of time together recently because of Race Across the World. I’ve learned that he’s grown into a wonderful young man. At the start I was mothering him – worrying about sun cream and silly things. But by the end, he was being a mum to me. I wanted to give up, and he made me keep going. Dylan is still the same quirky, kind boy in the photo – everyone loves him. He is the perfect son. Always has been. I just wish I could tell that little boy not to lose heart if school doesn’t come easily; one day he’s going to find his own path.