Nicky Campbell reveals Charlie Brooker’s vendetta against him left him ‘depressed and bed-ridden’

Presenter Nicky Campbell has revealed he was once bedridden with depression for two days after a barrage of ‘vicious’ insults from satirist and writer Charlie Brooker.

The Scottish radio and TV personality, 60, said the ‘horrible’ rant from Black Mirror writer Brooker hit him ‘really hard’ and sent him to a ‘really low ebb’.

He said that Brooker, 50, ‘took against him’ in a series of rants made in online reviews and on television, in which he compared Campbell to ‘The Devil’.

Campbell, who suffers from depression and bipolar disorder, also said the insults, including calling him a ‘w**kstain’ and ‘The Antichrist’, affected him more due to his admiration for the ‘brilliant writer’.

And he urged critics like Brooker to be ‘very careful’ about what they say due to the impact it can have on their targets’ mental health.

Speaking on the Time Capsule podcast, Campbell said: ‘I’ve suffered from terrible depression since I can remember – probably since I was a teenager, and I have bipolar disorder type two.

‘I think that Charlie Brooker became slightly, I don’t know… he gave me some terrible reviews and thought there was something unsettling about me and he sort of focused on it – something for him that didn’t ring true.

‘He just really took against me. He did these reviews, and then he made a video online and I think he did it on television, that I was The Devil.

‘He’s brilliant, Charlie is a brilliant writer – Black Mirror is phenomenal, he has done some incredible stuff. He’s one of the greatest. [But when] I was at a really low ebb, and we had a text on the air, saying, ‘Charlie Brooker really gave you the full treatment last night.’

‘I thought, ‘What’s that?’ I went home and watched it. It was a kind of comedy show, and he just laid into me. He had a string of insults and that really hit me.

‘That kind of, ‘He’s right. I don’t deserve to be here and he’s rumbled me – he’s got me. I don’t really know who I am and he’s sussed it out. He’s pointing the finger and everyone’s laughing.’

‘I think one of the words was ‘w**kstain’, and it sent me into… I was in bed for two days after it. It sent me into a really, really low ebb and I was suffering badly at the time, anyway.

‘I can take it – of course I can take people having a go and having a bit of craic and insulting you – it goes with the game. But this was visceral. Really, really visceral and really vicious and really horrible.’

Father-of-four Campbell added that people like Brooker needed to be ‘very careful’ about what they say in the public sphere.

The 5 Live breakfast presenter said: ‘The more disappointing because, he wasn’t just some twat, he’s this really highly regarded, brilliant writer. It might sound a bit pathetic, but it really hit me hard.

‘I think we’ve got to be very careful about that sort of thing in the public space. Nobody knows what anybody’s going through.

‘I will never be as talented or as brainy or as articulate as Charlie Brooker, but on that occasion and a few other occasions, it was bad.’

Campbell has hosted his 5 Live breakfast show since 2003, and also presents TV show Long Lost Family with Davina McCall.

He and his wife, radio journalist Christina Ritchie, live in London with their four daughters and three dogs.