Corrie role left actor on verge of breakdown

Former Coronation Street star Bruce Jones has revealed that life on the soap drove him to the "verge of a nervous breakdown".

The actor, who played Weatherfield layabout Les Battersby for ten years, was unable to cope with the massive attention that the high-profile role brought him.

He told the Daily Mirror: "The pressure it put me and my marriage under is huge. I have been on the verge of a nervous breakdown... I like to go to a pub and have a couple of pints on my own to relax. I don't want people coming up saying: 'Can I have your autograph, Les?' Les has gone; he's finished for the day."

Jones, whose Coronation Street contract came to an end in May, claimed that attention from the soap's viewers affected his health, saying: "I was depressed and I wasn't enjoying it anymore. I was losing weight, wasn't talking and my mates said I never smiled.

"I'd just sit in a chair, not speaking and watching TV all day - there in body, not in spirit."