Former light-entertainment star drives his Citroen into a kerb. In Acton!

The big news is that "troubled" (nice euphemistic use of quote marks there) former star of 80s ITV quiz shows has chosen to grace our fêted burg with a flat.

Oh, and we now know that because on Tuesday 22 November he crashed his Citroen DS3 into a kerb on the corner of The Vale and Dordrecht Road - just outside the office of a hair transplant surgeon, in what is an amusing but probably totally unrelated detail. He was arrested by the police for drunk and disorderly conduct and possession of a Class A drug - that is, cocaine - after police officers on routine patrol came across the wreck at 4:30 in the morning ("'Ere, Sarge, you'll never guess who we just found", etc).

Barrymore wasn't alone in his gallic supermini, he also had an unnamed male companion with him. It's apparently not clear who was actually driving the car, but they've both been arrested nonetheless. Both men have been bailed, and Barrymore will have to appear at Ealing Magistrates Court on 7 December.

Michael Barrymore was of course the star of popular 80s TV shows like You Bet and Strike It Lucky. But his career tobogganed in the 90s, eventually hitting its low peak after what we'll generously refer to as an "incident" in 2001. He bounced back a little in 2005 by coming second in Celebrity Big Brother. It's not often that appearing on Big Brother counts as a career improvement.

Instead of focusing on the more sordid details of Barrymore's past, lets instead speculate on which other failed stars of 1980s ITV light-entertainment might live in Acton. Les Dennis? Russ Abbot? Bobby Davro? The mind boggles at the possibilities.

November 28, 2011