Joanna Scanlan has admitted that at times she has called herself an alcoholic.
The 60-year-old was named the winner of the top acting prize at the 2022 Bafta awards ceremony in March, where she took home the best actress gong for her performance in the drama After Love.
However, the Wirral-born actress, known for her role as civil servant Terri Coverley in BBC sitcom The Thick Of It, has revealed how alcoholism played a “big part” in her younger years.
Speaking about the impact of being sent to a girls’ boarding school aged six, Angela told the Telegraph : “It was particularly harsh, of course, in those days.
“The damage is absolutely huge and needs a lot of work to unpick.”
The actress said she never replied to her mother’s letters and instead “totally shut down”.
Angela was expelled aged 13 for her “extremely” bad behaviour, which resulted in her moving boarding schools.
A year later, she recalls “feeling suicidal" and locking herself in a school bathroom, before taking pills “with this attempt to kind of just to kill myself".
She went on: “I don’t know about you, but when I hit my teens, that darkness came into my world in a way that was really unfathomable. It was so normal to have to manage really huge, dark emotions.”
Angela admitted alcohol had been a significant feature in her childhood, remembering having a bottle of Clinique toner filled with gin.
She said: “Alcoholism was a big part of our family life. I was desperate to be allowed to make choices about my own life and having a drink was a huge part of that, as was smoking.”
Angela explained she would often turn to drink while studying law at the University of Cambridge, which she describes as a “consequence of the trauma of encountering men”.
At the age of 29, she went on to suffer from a “massive collapse".
“I woke up with what I thought was a hangover, or flu, went to see my parents, went straight to bed, started crying and that went on day after day," Angela said.
“Floods of tears. This feeling of a headache, sore throat, aching muscles. My mum took me to see the doctor, and they said I had chronic fatigue syndrome."
Since then, Angela has given up drinking and smoking - but still admits to calling herself an "alcoholic" at times.
The actress, who has been sober for 30 years, said: “In certain situations I have said I am an alcoholic without having gone through a lot of what many of my friends have gone through and that is simply because I was 29, rather than 39.
“If I’d carried on, it would have got worse and worse.”
During her addiction battle, Angela was warned by her doctor over the consequences of drinking alcohol.
She has since went on to wed accountant husband Neil in 2009.
Reflecting on her life, she added: “I honestly don’t think the purpose of our existence is to be happy. But I think it is to be authentic, and to be there as part of a community and that means engaging with the darker elements in oneself.”
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