Grantham reveals failed suicide bids

Leslie Grantham has said he tried to kill himself three times after being sacked from EastEnders in an internet sex scandal.

The 'Dirty Den' actor was axed from the soap in 2004 after a newspaper revealed he had joined webcam sex sessions from his studio dressing room.

He tells in extracts from his new autobiography Life and Other Times, being serialised in the News of the World, how the revelation left him shamed and devastated.

"I let everyone down, my wife Jane, my children and the show. Life didn't seem worth living," he said, explaining that he tried to slash his wrists, hang himself from a tree and to drown himself in a lake.

He described his feelings after one failed attempt in his back garden: "I opened my eyes and, finding myself in Wimbledon rather than in heaven or hell, accepted that, even at suicide, I was crap."

The actor put his actions down to getting bored with the EastEnders work schedule. "Thank God, I got caught," he commented. "I don't have to lie about this any more. Now I'm just trying to get in with my life."