Addiction threatened Hywel Bennett’s life

Press, 30 August 1989, Page 19

Addiction threatened Hywel Bennett’s life

Hywel Bennett, who plays Chris Webb in “The Consultant” (tonight at 8.30 on One), has overcome the drinking addiction that ended his 19year marriage to television presenter Cathy McGowen and was threatening his life. “Three years ago,” he says, “I was told I was literally within two days of dying, after a doctor discovered I had a hyperactive thyroid gland. And although the drink wasn’t necessarily the cause of the condition, it did seem like a warning, a shock which brought

me up short and made me re-evaluate my life.” During a subsequent six-month treatment of special tablets, Bennett was warned that any alcohol combined with the medication could kill him. Following this treatment, he decided to stay off the bottle for good. Before his health scare, Bennett knew his drinking had begun to get out of control. He also realised that he was taking on too much work and was constantly stressed by people’s expectations of him to keep

on giving the same high quality performances, time after time. “Emotionally,” he says, “I’d find myself always getting spent and, at the rate I had been working, never giving myself enough time to recover.” The producer and director of “Shelley,” Bennett’s personal friend, Tony Parker, witnessed his transformation. “Today, Hywel has become a completely changed human being. He is more rational, more intelligent and disciplined,” he says.