Virginia Blackburn

POOR Ant McPartlin. Those whom the gods destroy they first make mad. Rehab for drink and prescription pill addiction, followed by a marriage breakdown, followed by this latest car crash – it has not been a good year for the TV presenter. People who know him say he has changed. It just goes to show that you can have the most gilded life imaginable and yet it can still all implode in an instant. Who knows what demons each of us must face?

It has been pointed out correctly that with the privilege Ant has enjoyed throughout his life there are better candidates to grieve for. Matt LeBlanc recently said that he turns up, does his job and collects the pay cheque, which is the best bit, and that is an admirable philosophy by which anyone in the public eye should live.

But some people just cannot stop themselves from sliding into the abyss. Now Ant’s TV career is in jeopardy and while he probably doesn’t need the money we all need a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

What will he have left if deprived of the job he has been doing since he was a child?

Ominously it is looking as if TV bosses will not support him on the basis that “lessons have been learned” from the downfall of Michael Barrymore.

Barrymore is now remembered, if at all, for the death of Stuart Lubbock but his personal meltdown started six years before that as alcohol took its toll, his marriage to his manager Cheryl fell apart and he came out as gay. To begin with the big cheeses in the industry supported him until it all went too far and poor Stuart’s death finished off what was left of his career.

In his heyday Barrymore was if