Will Mellor 'slipped into a depression' after his sister's death and extended unemployment

(Image credit: YHFPhoto)

Will Mellor has told how he sometimes struggled to get out of bed during a tough period in which he was grieving the loss of his sister and had no work.

The In The Club star, 38, revealed he almost fell into a depression during the rough patch last year.

He explained: "Last year was a difficult year because I did Dates and then I did Broadchurch, and then I didn't work for six to eight months, which is fine, because a lot of people don't work for longer periods than that.

"But I was having a difficult time as my sister had passed away, and I was trying to see what the point of it all was.

"It was a time when you start slipping into a bit of depression before you know it - I didn't want to get out of bed some days, and I started to doubt myself.

"It doesn't matter how many times you tell yourself how lucky you are - and I'm very lucky to have the life I have and my family - you don't see that when you're immersed in it. I think it's something that can happen to anyone when you lose someone, but I'm back out the other end of it, and hopefully a better person for it."

Will went on to be cast in In The Club and is currently filming new drama No Offence, about a police unit in Manchester.

"I'm excited to see what happens," Will said of his future. "I like being myself on television, so I might do some factual stuff, and I'd like to do a play - I haven't been on stage yet, and I think as an actor, that's something you've got to do. But hopefully I can just keep going the way I am now - I'm very happy with where things are at the moment."

Will Mellor stars in In The Club, out now on DVD.

 

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.