ITV News presenter Tom Bradby has revealed he was forced to take three months off work in 2018 after suffering a breakdown. The newsreader opened up about the experience in an interview with Radio Times, discussing his new ITV thriller Secret Service.
Bradby said he wrote the novel on which the series is based faster than any of his other books, and that reflecting on the speed at which it 'poured out' of him, it seemed obvious that the protagonist Kate Henderson was 'skating on the edge of acute insomnia and some kind of breakdown'. He added: 'And shortly after I finished it, this is exactly what happened to me. I took three months off, rebooted and recovered.'
The journalist has previously spoken about his time off, revealing it began with insomnia which led to what he described as an 'addiction' to a sleeping pill. He said reading the book now makes him wonder at how the character directly reflected his own psychological state.
Secret Service, adapted from Bradby's best-selling novel, stars Gemma Arterton as senior MI6 officer Kate Henderson and Rafe Spall as her husband Stuart. The five-part series explores espionage against a backdrop of escalating UK-Russia tensions, with Arterton's character racing to uncover a high-ranking UK politician suspected of being a Russian asset.
The drama launches on Monday April 27 at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
