Joanna Lumley: How I battled depression

Joanna Lumley has spoken about having her own 'Stephen Fry moment', when she walked out of a play she was starring in whilst suffering from depression.

The 61-year-old said as a single mum back in 1971, she got 'terribly depressed' during her first ever play It's Awfully Bad For Your Eyes, Darling.

She told the Daily Express: "I did a Stephen Fry and never went back. I was mad. Not clinically mad but it was such a dark depression. I couldn't cross the road or go into shops."

Comedian Stephen Fry walked out of the West End play Cell Mates in 1995 whilst suffering from a bout of depression.

Joanna added that her own depression was triggered by 'working so hard'.

"I had no money, I was a single parent with Jamie. We were poor but we weren't unpleasantly poor. It was a hard slog.

"It was a breakdown. I didn't work for six months. I remember thinking: I must never get this off the rails again. It is hard to come back," she said.