My ‘terrible’ tinnitus, by Vic Reeves

TV COMEDY star Vic Reeves reveals he’s been diagnosed with tinnitus — a distressing condition that causes ringing from inside the ears.

‘I’ve got tinnitus. It’s terrible,’ he tells me. ‘I worry I shout, because it’s difficult for me to hear people in a crowded room.

‘I imagine a lot of kids are going to end up with it from listening to music in headphones all the time.

‘It’s like a gas tap on permanently. The left ear is really bad; the right one is less bad.’

The 59-year-old, whose four children include 11-year-old twin girls with his model wife Nancy Sorrell, 43, says he’s learned to endure it. ‘You just have to zone it out,’ he adds. ‘I, like a lot of men, am stoic. I grin and bear it.

‘I try to get over it with mind over matter, pretty much.’