Tony Slattery, the comedian and actor, has spoken of his daily battle with bipolar disorder claiming his only plan for his 60th year is to ‘survive.’

The comic regularly appeared on Who’s Line Is It Anyway? and Have I Got News For You in the 1980s and 90s, but has only worked sporadically in television and on stage in recent years.

In an interview with the Sunday Mirror, Slattery said he now lived in a ‘tiny, not nice’ rented two bedroom flat with his partner because he never bought when he had money at the height of his career.

In the 1990s he was spending £4,000 a week on drugs which led to breakdown in 1996, where he did not leave his flat for six months.

He is now touring again, but speaking about his ongoing battle with mental illness, he said: “You wake up and, if you're alive, cool - go from there if you can.

“I could write you a book on bipolarity. It's one of those hidden things, it's complicated. That's not to say, 'Oh god, aren't I special'. So many people have it - the spectrum is enormous.

“But it hugely helps to talk about it - to get it out, discuss it."