In the early 1990s Tony Slattery was ubiquitous as an actor and comedian. It probably helped that he looked like a less oily but a more handsome Bob Monkhouse.
It was the improvisational show Whose Line Is It Anyway? that bought him into the public's attention. There were also a lot of adverts he did and he was a regular in talk shows and panel shows. Slattery even presented a film review show on ITV.
If there were downsides to his public persona. Slattery's West End theatre shows were flops.
By the late 1990s the public saw less and less of Tony Slattery. Some years ago I read about his battle with booze and cocaine. Then there were his money worries and he only got his last television acting gig courtesy of his longtime friend Stephen Fry.
This Horizon documentary tries to get inside Slattery's head as to the causes of his behaviour which is somewhere in the Bipolar spectrum.
Slattery is in now 60 years old. Overweight and his faced looks lived in. The years have taken his toll on him. His longtime partner looks much better and younger.
While visiting various psychiatrists, Slattery himself did not connect that he managed to give up cocaine easily about 20 years ago but he cannot kick the booze.
On a visit to a psychiatrist in Belfast, Slattery talks about his childhood sexual abuse. An incident which has caused a major trauma in his life. The booze and drugs may have been partly related to this, something that blunts the edges of his emotions.
Although shot over some weeks, by the end I was unsure whether he has got better even by going public over the sexual abuse he suffered. The program indicated that there was a route to recovery, we were told that he has been drinking less but it might just be a temporary thing.
I fear that the journey will be a long and arduous one. I am sure I will read more about it in the press. It would be nice to see Slattery in some acting roles.
