Mental Health Awareness Week

The long-running Lime Pictures soap for young adults has been widely praised for its portrayal of mental ill health. Storylines have addressed depression and bulimia and, earlier this year, self-harm, which ended with the death of the character, Lily McQueen, from sepsis.

“My mum took her own life when I was seven and I later lost my dad to addiction,” Kirkwood said. “More than mental ill health, it was the silence that crippled us. Nobody ever spoke about it.

The Channel 4 Continuity Creative Managers have partnered with mental health charity Mind to raise awareness for mental health issues in a week-long campaign.

Fry, President of mental health charity Mind, will be joined alongside Mind ambassador Ruby Wax and mental health campaigner Alastair Campbell, as well as celebrity supporters Dame Kelly Holmes, TV presenter Matt Johnson, Years and Years singer Olly Alexander and former football manager Alan Pardew.