Sunday 29 May 2022 06:07 PM 'I lost everything': Noel Clarke reveals he contemplated suicide after his ... trends now

British actor Noel Clarke has revealed he contemplated suicide in his first interview since more than 20 women accused him of sex offences.

Last year, the Guardian published the allegations of misconduct from the women who all knew Clarke in a professional capacity.

In a statement at the time Clarke said he 'vehemently' denied 'any sexual misconduct or criminal wrongdoing' and no criminal charges have been brought against him.

He added that he was 'deeply sorry' if some of his actions had affected people 'in ways I did not intend or realise', and vowed to get professional help 'to educate myself and change for the better'.

The actor, 46, best known for appearing in Doctor Who and for co-creating The Hood Trilogy, has told The Mail On Sunday that he considered cutting his own throat with a knife, and that a question from his 11-year-old son 'snapped me out of it'.

'Twenty years of work was gone in 24 hours. I lost everything,' he told the newspaper, adding that his career has been cancelled by the allegations.

'The company I built from the ground up, my TV shows, my movies, my book deals, the industry respect I had. In my heart and my head it has damaged me in a way I cannot articulate.'

Following the allegations against Clarke, ITV pulled the concluding episode of drama Viewpoint, in which he starred, and broadcaster Sky, which had aired Clarke's series Bulletproof, said it was halting work with him.

Bafta also suspended his membership of the organisation and his outstanding British contribution to cinema award, which he had been given in 2021.

In March this year police said no criminal investigation would be launched in relation to sexual offence allegations made against him.

Scotland Yard said in a statement in March 2022 that there had been a thorough assessment by specialist detectives, but it was determined the information would not meet the threshold for a criminal investigation.

The statement said: 'We have shared our findings with the third party organisation and updated the complainants who subsequently contacted us following the initial report.

'If any further criminal allegation related to those already assessed are reported then it will be thoroughly considered.'

In the past year, Clarke and his wife Iris, who have been together for two decades, have had a new baby they haven't dared tell anyone about. Financially the family has been left 'running on fumes'. Most seriously, at his lowest, Clarke was suicidal. 

He said: 'I didn't care about anything. My mind was destroyed.'

He pocketed a folding hunting knife bought as a souvenir while filming Auf Wiedersehen, Pet in Arizona 20 years ago and planned to cut his own throat.

'I needed to do something unsurvivable,' he said. 'I was reaching for a book and the knife fell out of my pocket. My 11-year-old said, 'Daddy, why have you got that?'

'I said, 'It's just to pick the dirt out of my nails…' And he said, 'Oh, OK,' and somehow the ordinariness of that snapped me out of it. Up to that point, I had been waiting for the right moment to kill myself. I was out of here. Done. I didn't care about anything. My mind was destroyed.'

The father-of-four also said: 'I'm not a predator. I have crossed the road to avoid walking behind women since I was 15 years old.'

He continued: 'I've been a regular dude, for sure, I flirt. Have I ever made a saucy comment? One hundred per cent. But not to the extent that it warranted the destruction of my life.

'I can't say I never talked about sex at work. We're adults in a workplace and people make jokes and have conversations with each other that cross the line.

'Sometimes you're with each other for six, seven months, away from home. I think sometimes these are just normal, or slightly inappropriate, conversations that people have.

'I was never involved in any conversation that I didn't believe was mutual, wasn't being reciprocated. Maybe I should have known better. But you know what, I didn't always know better.'

One of Clarke's first TV appearances was in Channel 4 series Metrosexuality, and he went on to garner fame for his roles as Mickey Smith in Doctor Who and Wyman Norris in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.

He later wrote and starred in the acclaimed film trilogy Kidulthood, Adulthood and Brotherhood, and directed two of them.

He was first recognised by Bafta in 2009, when he won the Rising Star prize.

The allegations – made by more than 20 women and spanning a 15-year period – include claims of unwanted touching or groping, sexually inappropriate behaviour and comments on set, the covert filming of a naked audition and the sharing of explicit pictures without consent.

Clarke vehemently denies the claims. He has not, he told the Mail on Sunday, been granted the presumption of innocence, let alone a fair hearing.

Clarke is not the subject of a criminal investigation. After ten months of assessment by specialist detectives with the Metropolitan Police, none of the allegations made against him has been found to meet the threshold for further police inquiry.

'There has been no arrest, no charges, no trial, no verdict but I have been criminalised,' he said, pointing to the rush to judgment accelerated by social media. 'This is a form of modern McCarthyism.

'If we don't need police and judges and juries any more, if we only need social media and the broadcasters, then what world do we live in?' Clarke asked.

'At what point did the broadcasters in this country become the judges, juries and executioners of people? At what point did Bafta decide they were no longer about films, but they were about judging people's lives? This is not about me, it's bigger, it's about due process. Yes, people have said these things about me – but if I say you're a donkey, it doesn't make you a donkey, does it?'

In March and April last year when an anonymous dossier was sent to Bafta immediately after the announcement that he was to be honoured with the outstanding contribution award at a ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall. 

Weeks later, The Guardian newspaper published multiple accounts of alleged egregious behaviour by Clarke between 2004 and 2019. Ten of the women agreed to be named, including Gina Powell, who worked for Clarke as a producer between 2014 and 2017.

She claimed he constantly harassed her, and that during a work trip to Los Angeles in August 2015 he exposed himself in the car they were travelling in and that he later groped her in a lift, telling her he had got 'what he was owed'. 

Clarke categorically denies her claims, saying: 'I never harassed Gina. I never groped Gina in 2015 in LA or showed her my penis in a car.'

Powell also claimed that Clarke secretly filmed a naked audition by the actress Jahannah James, and then showed Powell the video.

Clarke claims he wanted to ensure Ms James would be comfortable in a role that required nudity, but now regrets organising a naked audition. He vehemently denies that it was filmed, adding: 'I never showed

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