Monday, 4 March 2013

Alcoholic ex-Coronation Street star Bruce Jones caught sneaking out of pub

Former Corrie actor Bruce Jones has been spotted looking worse for wear during a drinking session despite claiming on TV he was beating his battle with booze and depression.
The star, who played the Street's resident drunk Les Battersby, was caught on camera leaving a pub just 36 hours before he appeared on ITV show Daybreak saying 'I feel great'.
Mr Jones had headed to the drinking hole after he made a brief appearance on Keith Lemon's ITV2 panel show Celebrity Juice, arriving on set at 8.30pm.

Caught on camera: Coronation street Star Bruce Jones was spotted leaving the Chancellors pub in West London just 36 hours before he told Daybreak viewers he was beating his alcohol demons
Caught on camera: Coronation street Star Bruce Jones was spotted leaving the Chancellors pub in West London just 36 hours before he told Daybreak viewers he was beating his alcohol demons
Revealing: Former Coronation Street Actor was seen leaving a pub just 36 hours before he told Daybreak presenters Aled Jones and Kate Garraway that he was overcoming his problems with alcohol and depression
Revealing: Former Coronation Street Actor was seen leaving a pub just 36 hours before he told Daybreak presenters Aled Jones and Kate Garraway that he was overcoming his problems with alcohol and depression

The 60-year-old was then said to have visited the nearby Chancellors pub, leaving the West London establishment at 9.30pm, the Daily Mirror newspaper reported.
He then joined friends in the bar at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, where Celebrity Juice was filmed, and was seen knocking back pints of Meantime beer.
Mr Jones, who played Les Battersby between 1997 and 2007, was later heard telling his drinking partners that he feared he had been photographed leaving the Chancellors pub.
Yesterday the father-of-four appeared on ITV breakfast show Daybreak, having been booked to chat about his battles with alcohol and depression.
In the live interview with presenters Aled Jones and Kate Garraway, Mr Jones told how he felt he had turned a corner after hitting rock bottom in 2009 when he tried to kill both himself and his wife Sandra by drunkenly grabbing the wheel of the car as she was driving.
He said: 'I feel great actually. I think that moment was I'd been drinking all day and I was supposed to go to North Wales with my wife and I'd had enough.
Candid: The 60-year-old actor told viewers that he had turned the corner having been booked on the show to talk about his issues
Candid: The 60-year-old actor told viewers that he had turned the corner having been booked on the show to talk about his issues
Spotted: Mr Jones, who played drunken Les Battersby between 1997 and 2007, was seen leaving the pub after he filmed a cameo on Celebrity Juice on Wednesday
Spotted: Mr Jones, who played drunken Les Battersby between 1997 and 2007, was seen leaving the pub after he filmed a cameo on Celebrity Juice on Wednesday

'I love my wife, I love my wife more than anything in the world, still do to this day, and I tried to kill us both. I just grabbed the steering wheel and [thought], "If I'm going, you're coming with me. I love you that much that you're coming with me".
'I know it sounds stupid, but at that moment in time, that's how I felt.'
He added: 'My friends rallied round and I suddenly decided, it's got to end - either I've got to end or it's got to end - and "it", as it turns out was depression.'
Mr Jones' Daybreak appearance followed an interview with Tyneside newspaper the Sunday Sun where he compared himself to troubled footballer Paul Gascoigne, 45, who is currently being treated for alcohol addiction.
He said: 'Depression is as common as a cold. The more you do positive things, the better life gets.

'I thought: stop going to the pub, stop feeling sorry for yourself, stop blaming other people and blame yourself.'

Mr Jones also gave Gazza advice on how to recover from his latest alcohol-related setback, and said that, like the footballer, he had suffered when fans had offered to buy him a pint.
'The only advice I would give to Gazza is get well,' he said.

'We can beat depression. I have beaten it.'

Banned: Bruce Jones was given a three year driving ban in 2010 after he admitted drunkenly grabbing the wheel of a car driven by wife Sandra, pictured right
Banned: Bruce Jones was given a three year driving ban in 2010 after he admitted drunkenly grabbing the wheel of a car driven by wife Sandra, pictured right

In 1998 Mr Jones was banned from driving for three years after he admitted being drunk behind the wheel.
He also admitted to drink driving in 2010 following the incident in the car with his wife and was spared a prison sentence. 
It was his drinking that led to Mr Jones being axed from Coronation Street after 10 years on the show when he told fellow pubgoers about upcoming storylines.
He has struggled to find acting work since leaving the show and has confesses to having blown his fortune and saddled his family with debt which lead to his £500,000 home in Cheshire being repossessed. 
Three years ago Mr Jones, who has been to rehab twice, was warned by doctors that more drinking could kill him.
In an interview last year he revealed that he had drunk as many as 15 pints a day.
Mr Jones' agent was today said to be away for the weekend and unavailable for comment on his client's recent drinking session.
Fame: Bruce Jones is best known for playing layabout Les Battersby in soap Coronation Street
Fame: Bruce Jones is best known for playing layabout Les Battersby in soap Coronation Street