When Pc Jason Lambourne isn’t working for Suffolk Constabulary, he dons another emergency services uniform for work as an extra in hit television shows and films, including the latest 007 movie.
The Stowmarket-based officer has a demanding role as a forensic collision investigator with Suffolk police’s serious collision investigation team, but he said his outside interests, which also include truck driving, are “a release”.
His extra work has included for EastEnders, Midsomer Murders and also the new James Bond movie Spectre, in which he is a paramedic standing next to an ambulance.
For the Bond film, he said he initially went to Pinewood Studios, in Buckinghamshire, for scene rehearsals before it was shot in London.
While he did not get to meet any of the star actors, he said he did spot Daniel Craig, (pictured inset with fellow Spectre star Monica Bellucci) who plays 007, and the new M (Ralph Fiennes), Q (Ben Whishaw) and Miss Moneypenny (Naomie Harris).
He said he fell into film and TV work by chance through a colleague’s partner who provides medical cover for film and TV sets, but he has since developed an interest in work behind the scenes.
“It’s amazing to see how it all works,” he said. “You don’t appreciate when you watch a film the work that goes in.”
Pc Lambourne, 37, from the Stowmarket area, has appeared in two scenes in an episode of EastEnders – the one where Shabnam Masood (played by Rakhee Thakrar) gives birth to a stillborn baby – again as a paramedic.
He said: “I got to meet Bonnie Langford [who plays Carmel Kazemi], who was lovely and very friendly and got to look round Albert Square as well, which was amazing.”
A complete contrast with the world of TV and film is Pc Lambourne’s work as a truck driver. Before he joined the police, he was a lorry driver, but now only gets the odd shifts in through an agency on his days off or during his annual leave.
He was even a UK finalist in 2012 for Scania’s annual ‘Young European Truck Driver’ competition.
He said his trucking links in with his work at the roads policing unit, giving him an insight into the issues lorry drivers and haulage firms are facing, and he also gets behind the wheel for police’s Operation Wyken, during which a colleague films drivers committing possible motoring offences.
Pc Lambourne, who is also a motorcyclist, said: “I definitely think it’s a good thing to have interests outside of the force. With being a lorry driver it keeps me in touch with that industry and as a roads policing officer at heart I think it’s a good thing.
“And I think with the nature of the work I do as a serious collision investigator with dealing with fatal collisions and life-changing injury collisions it’s good to have a release from that and something else to occupy your mind. In that way it keeps you a more rounded person I think.”
He added: “It reminds you there is some fun in life and it’s not all doom and gloom. It makes you realise how precious life is and to make the most of every opportunity, which is what I try to do.”
Pc Lambourne joined the police force in 2001, moving onto the roads policing unit in 2009. He has been with the serious collision investigation team since 2013. “It’s certainly a worthwhile career,” he added.
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