Adam Ant: The Madness Of Prince Charming (Channel 4) - THE media had a field day when Stuart Goddard - better known as 1980s pop icon Adam Ant - was detained for his own protection in a mental ward last year, after a violent incident in a London pub.

There's nothing the public likes more than reading about or watching the fall from grace of someone famous. And Goddard was a man who sold millions of records and whose posters adorned the walls of countless young girls' bedrooms.

On the surface, this programme seemed one of those cheap and cheerful TV biographies that litter the screen. It was therefore surprising to discover that it had some serious points to make about mental illness and our attitude to those suffering from it.

Its credentials were aided by having Goddard himself talking about his mood swings. "You're trying to describe what it's like to go to hell. It's not a good thing or a nice thing to talk about, but that's what it's like," he said.

He was diagnosed with manic depression at 21. After intensive psychiatric treatment, he emerged as Adam Ant. Forming The Ants brought out the best in him. He used music as medication.

To achieve mainstream success, he knew he needed to reinvent himself. Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren offered him career advice but didn't ask him to join when he launched Bow Wow Wow. By the end of the 1970s, Goddard had no band, no money and no future but no depression.

That only made him more determined to succeed, and within a year he was the biggest pop star in Britain. Unusually, he was one who didn't drink, smoke or take drugs, although he had a weakness for beautiful women.

He kept depression away by working 24 hours a day, seven days a week to keep away the demons that were lurking in the background. This energy was part of his manic depression. He had, psychologists said, found the perfect profession to hide the illness.

It came close to killing him but made him what he was as an artist - just like Van Gogh, Virginia Woolf and Byron. Whoever would have thought they'd hear the name of Adam Ant in such illustrious company?

When the hits dried up and fame deserted him, he reinvented himself again by relocating to America and attending acting school. But the depression returned. Following a three-year terror campaign by a stalker, he was admitted to hospital with major depression and suicidal tendencies.

He returned here in the mid-1990s, married and had a daughter, although the marriage didn't last. He agreed to appear in an 80s nostalgia tour but never made it, as the "manic" side of his illness flared up.

Friends saw trouble ahead and tried to help him. His response was to go into a pub with a starting pistol and throw a heavy car alternator through the window. He was detained for his own protection in a mental ward while the media and the public "enjoyed" his downfall.

It was sad to hear that since recording the interviews for the programme, he'd had to spend time in hospital again. For him, the illness, if not the fame, continues.

Published: 18/07/2003