Tony Slattery

[jacksonmaine]

To hope that Tony Slattery will be back on the TV again soon.

@FloralBunting I'm so glad someone else's main takeaway from that article was the abuse he suffered as a child. Whilst I'm with all the other PP who said it was a sad, honest and very touching piece, I can't get past what was done to the poor guy by yet another bastard in a position of trust and authority.

@temporarypermanent I'm so sorry 💐

To defend his other friends, it is bloody difficult staying friends with someone who is that ill. my husband took his own life last year and staying married nearly broke me numerous times even though he was a most fantastic man.

Yes. It's one thing to criticise his friends for abandoning him but there often comes a time that for your own mental health the best thing to do is walk away. It doesn't mean completely abandoning the person and Slattery was a regular in Stephen Fry's series Kingdom about 10 years ago, so clearly not completely abandoned. But another person can't fix you and for there own sakes, shouldn't try. I read the article and felt truly sad for his partner, staying with him for over 30 years when Freeman described him of smelling of alcohol right at the start of the interview. My husband is an addict and the years and years of my life I spent loving him unconditionally thinking I could save him or just be there for him so he wouldn't be alone at the end, are years of my life that were in all honestly completely wasted.

I might have a big old fucking argument with some fellow Catholics tomorrow about priests being immoral shits and gay men proving deeply faithful in love.

What also struck me was his inability to be honest about his life in order to protect his parents. He couldn't tell them about the abuse, which I know is extremely common. And for over 30 years he has been in a partnership with a man that he never felt he could tell them about. And it all comes from the same place of institutionally learned shame and belief that something utterly normal and fantastic is so very wrong. The best thing in his life was a partner he had to keep secret.

Brought a tear to my eye. Whoever said it was cruel must have been reading another article to me....

Perhaps I was unfair about his friends not hanging around. They may well have tried to be supportive. It's been many years.

Not cruel at all, a great article and I thought sensitively written.

I knew he'd had issues,poor man.

im sure when be said his friends had abandoned him, he felt it was true. but I bet there'll be a few winces from those friends. I would predict another admission soon, I'm afraid.

Brought a tear to my eye. Whoever said it was cruel must have been reading another article to me....

This

I think Hadley did a great job. A light touch with many opportunities to stick the knife in, but instead gently done. Great journalism.

It’s nigh on impossible to stay friends with someone who is that self destructive.
Especially with undiagnosed bi polar
I’m sure they still care about him (someone else mentioned kingdom) but being really close to that is seriously damaging

And why the actual fuck has he come off his meds. That’s such a bad idea. And only really done by people who have not really come to terms with their disorder.

Was a big fan of Tony on Who’s Line is it Anyway.

Thought the article was really sad. It said Tony isn’t sober. So it’s clearly not a good idea to be doing shows etc.

Not sure re the journalist. It was respectfully written. Was very uncomfortable reading, felt voyeuristic, and even if Tony wanted a “warts and all” article about his health issues and addictions, the publicity might not help him.

I felt very sad reading it too. Such an awful story for such a talented man. I wondered if he would have been better in academia as he originally planned. The childhood abuse is horrible. Poor man.

I used to watch WLIIA and thought he was manic then, I am always surprised when people can't see it tbh - perhaps it's because I've seen it in others but it is really obvious (and the substances wouldn't have helped in that respect either although he probably felt they did at the time).

I can only wish him well, because I think he could be entering another manic phase and I really, really hope that's not the case for him. But dropping the meds is often a sign of the start.

I think it's unfair to say that he was dropped by his friends although I'm sure it feel that way to him. He probably cut them off.

I thought it was an honest article and quite sympathetic. I hope it's the start of an upward trend for him.

I agree he's always seemed manic, I always thought it was a combination of coke and MH issues.

That poor man.

The article made me squirm- I felt it was patronising and voyeuristic, and bits of it felt as if she was writing about a child. There was one part in particular I felt was cruel (there was a photo accompanying the article- we didn't need her to make any unkind comments about the way he looks.)

Blisteringly honest and yet still with an undercurrent of tenderness, I thought.

I don’t think it was cruel. It was honest and he said he was okay with it. I thought he was great in the 90s, I knew he had had some difficulties but didn’t realise the extent. I wish him all the best.

I thought it was a very sensitively written article, if difficult to read. I took from it that his life had esssentially been ruined by sexual abuse. Heartbreaking

I don’t always like Hadley Freeman but I thought it was a sympathetic interview. God I used to love him in whose line is it anyway reruns. I really hope going to Edinburgh doesn’t send him off into a bad spiral.

Temporary so sorry for your loss

It's lovely that there has been an outpouring of support but I'm concerned about what will happen next especially since he's stopped his medication. He's obviously still very vulnerable and social media support can be fickle and often doesn't translate into RL support/effort.

There have been a few articles here and there about him in the last month, and I don't think the Grauniad one was cruel. It was extremely sad, though, particularly the priest's effect on his later life. I thought it was strange there was no mention of him in "Blackadder".
If I were in Edinburgh, I would go and see him, I think he wants to perform and would love a supportive audience. I hope that works out for him this time.

It was hard to read, even though I thought it was a good interview. I don't really think this Edinburgh thing is a good idea, he's obviously still got alcohol issues and it's a total booze-fest, plus completely draining. And coming off his medication? He didn't say whether it was with the support of his doctors, but surely if it was he would have said so.

I was never a huge fan of his - that sketch show he did with Mike McShane is best forgotten - but he was always such a likeable guy that it's sad to hear he's had such a difficult time since he dropped off our screens. I suspect as PP have said, his friends didn't drop him so much as get pushed away, it's very hard to be a long-term friend of an addict. Although I did love that Richard Vranch-on-the-piano is still a close friend of his,

I do always like Hadley Freeman, and I trust her to do a decent job of her pieces. What she's captured is the shock most of us would feel - and that many have expressed on this thread - at comparing the Tony Slattery we remember from the 90s to the one in front of us now.
Just shows you what an absolute pit to climb out of it is to have mental health problems. Not the Hollywood narrative where you battle and get over it. And the bit about his partner was hugely moving, but also shows that even with someone's unconditional love, things can't always be fixed.

I thought the piece was the reverse of cruel, it was written with compassion and understanding. The real shocker was the picture. He’s obviously had a very tough time and the Twitter reaction has been kind and supportive.

I can't remember Slattery in Blackadder, what was his character?