The erratic behaviour is not a sign of creative genius but of addiction to the class A drug, said Sarah Graham, who has worked for BBC Radio 5, Children’s BBC and Channel 4′s The Big Breakfast. No wonder that is. If you remember Children’s television actress Natasha Collins died after taking a “very significant” amount of cocaine, sleeping pills and vodka at a party with her fiancee, fellow children’s presenter Mark Speight. Speight, 42, found her dead in the bath with 60 per cent burns at their London flat in January 2008. Richard Bacon was sacked after the News of the World revealed: “Blue Peter goody-goody is a cocaine snorting sneak”. BBC children’s programming chief Lorraine Heggessey appeared on the show to announce his downfall, telling viewers: “I believe that Richard has not only let himself down . . . but he’s also let all of you down badly.” Aged 21 when he was sacked, Bacon has not been out of work since. He popped up shortly afterwards on Channel 4’s Big Breakfast and returned to the BBC to front Top of the Pops. Going on to forge a career in radio, he is now on Radio 5 Live. Kevin Greening, a former Radio 1 DJ, died of a heart attack in 2007 after taking cocaine, ecstasy and GHB, following a bondage session on the eve of his 45th birthday.
“We were celebrating the end of a live show. I had a few glasses of champagne and I was asked if I would like to go to the toilet and do some cocaine,” Miss Graham recalled. “I’m ashamed to say I didn’t really know very much about cocaine beyond the hype – celebrity, glamour, success – that goes with it and I unfortunately went to the toilet and took cocaine and I believe that changed the course of my life from that point on.” Miss Graham said.
That evening was the beginning of a decade-long addiction for Miss Graham, 40, who was admitted to a rehab clinic in 2001. She is now a Harley Street drugs counsellor and a spokesman for Frank, the Government’s drugs information service.
She added: “There is a culture within the media and within the celebrity world that is very relaxed around the use of cocaine. It’s seen as something that is socially acceptable in certain areas, in industries where this ‘work hard, party hard’ ethos exists.
“The hype about drugs is that all these successful people are doing drugs… I bought into the showbiz myth of cocaine being part of that success.”