Nicky Campbell was left bedridden with depression for two days after being insulted by writer-and-critic Charlie Brooker.
Nicky Campbell
The 60-year-old TV-and-radio presenter was left deeply hurt by Charlie's "really vicious and really horrible" attacks on him as a professional made online and on television and it triggered a bout of depression.
Nicky admits being called "The Devil", "The Antchrist" and "w**kstain" by the 'Black Mirror' creator really affected him because of the respect he has for Charlie, 50.
Speaking on the podcast 'My Time Capsule', he said: "I've suffered from terrible depression since I can remember - probably since I was a teenager, and I have bipolar disorder type two.
"I think that Charlie Brooker became slightly, I don't know ... he gave me some terrible reviews and thought there was something unsettling about me and he sort of focused on it - something for him that didn't ring true.
"He just really took against me. He did these reviews, and then he made a video online and I think he did it on television, that I was The Devil.
'He's brilliant, Charlie is a brilliant writer - 'Black Mirror' is phenomenal, he has done some incredible stuff. He's one of the greatest. [But when] I was at a really low ebb, and we had a text on the air, saying, 'Charlie Brooker really gave you the full treatment last night.'
"I thought, 'What's that?' I went home and watched it. It was a kind of comedy show, and he just laid into me. He had a string of insults and that really hit me.
"That kind of, 'He's right. I don't deserve to be here and he's rumbled me - he's got me. I don't really know who I am and he's sussed it out. He's pointing the finger and everyone's laughing. I think one of the words was 'w**kstain', and it sent me into ... I was in bed for two days after it. It sent me into a really, really low ebb and I was suffering badly at the time, anyway.
"I can take it - of course I can take people having a go and having a bit of craic and insulting you - it goes with the game. But this was visceral. Really, really visceral and really vicious and really horrible."
Nicky - who presents BBC One current affairs discussion show 'The Big Questions' and ITV's 'Long Lost Family' - insists that people like Charlie and all critics in the public sphere need to realise they have a personal responsibility when it comes to what they say and how that is then shared on social media and beyond.
He added: "It was the more disappointing because he's this really highly regarded, brilliant writer. It might sound a bit pathetic, but it really hit me hard.
"I think we've got to be very careful about that sort of thing in the public space. Nobody knows what anybody's going through.
"I will never be as talented or as brainy or as articulate as Charlie Brooker, but on that occasion and a few other occasions, it was bad."
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