Jonathan Ross has told The Sun that making bad TV shows made him depressed and reliant on booze.

In his soon to be released autobiography, the chatshow host reveals that his love of the limelight made him sign up for TV shows that he already suspected wouldn’t work.

“I’d grown accustomed to having my face on TV, and the money that comes with it,” he said. “So I fronted different programmes, none of which really worked. This unhappy and unproductive period inevitably led to depression.”

He added that he began to drink excessively and only chose to give up the booze after a few harsh words from a man in a bar.

“I was drinking too much and spending my earnings none too wisely,” he explained. “One night I was out at a hip place when a young guy came up, full of himself. ‘Excuse me,’ he said, ‘but didn’t you used to be Jonathan Ross?’

“He was right. Standing there, overweight from booze, looking forward to another night of getting off my face in an expensive restaurant, paid for by churning out rubbish I had no respect for – why should others respect me?”