“My closet is empty of skeletons as a result of the press, so unwittingly they have made me immune in some ways,” Steve Coogan told the Leveson inquiry in 2011. His decision to testify followed a decade in which phone-hacking and other dirty tricks had turned the actor and comedian into a tabloid staple. There was drink (now given up). There was cocaine (“a dangerous amount” on at least one occasion, according to a later interview). And there were women. (The News of the World “improperly obtained” details of a liaison with Courtney Love, leading to a £40,000 payout.)
Coming clean – and getting clean – has liberated Coogan from a fast-cars-and-fast-living image that threatened to eclipse his extraordinary talent. It was hard to see past the laddish facade of the man who reportedly turned up at a Spitting Image party in a Ferrari he claimed was “worth its weight in twat” and appreciate the writer and performer underneath.
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