The comic’s close pal, Absolutely Fabulous actress Helen Lederer opens up on Tony’s final months before sudden death this year at the aged just 65
Three months after Tony Slattery’s tragic death, and his partner-in-crime, Helen Lederer, still finds herself crying when she hears his voice.
Comedian Tony died of a heart attack on 14 January, aged just 65. And now she has shared her heartbreak over the loss, revealing that Tony had turned his life around and was about to make a comeback after years struggling with bipolar disorder.
The star also fought cocaine and alcohol addiction.
“When his partner Mark texted me a few short weeks ago to tell me Tony had a heart attack, I was numb. This couldn’t be true. He was doing so well. There was a new beginning,” Helen, 70, tells The Mirror.
At the time Tony had been planning to move to the Wirral with partner Mark Hutchinson who he had been in a relationship with for almost 40 years.
Listening to The Friendship Files podcast that they recorded before his death, Helen found herself sobbing as she longed for the comedy star she rose through the ranks with.
“I found myself crying for the first time since Tony’s funeral,” says Helen, who appears in BBC Two series Pilgrimage: The Road Through the Alps, which starts Easter Sunday.
“No-one else from the comedy circuit understood me as well or so uncritically – and to lose that – means my comedy champion has truly gone.
“We both knew we were outsiders which gave us a shared mission – we loved what we did. If only Tony had been well, he would have continued, but he wasn’t. And this was how it had to be.”
After starting out on the comedy circuit, by the early nineties the two pals had both found television fame. While Helen starred as Catriona in BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, Tony was a popular panellist regular on Channel 4’s hit show Whose Line Is It Anyway?
In 1995, Tony made his last appearance on the game show due to his illness and largely withdrew from performing.
Speaking in 2019 he said:”I had a very happy time until I went slightly barmy”.
He had recently been touring a comedy show in England and launched a podcast, Tony Slattery’s Rambling Club a few months before his death.
But despite his struggles and years of being a semi-recluse, Helen says their friendship never faltered. “Even in recent years when Tony’s behaviour was somewhat erratic, we would always find time to share memories or dissect the current injustices of our shared business,” Helen adds.
“Our days of doing crazy TV pilots down in Southampton or long enduring West End runs were over…but this later version of Tony was finally now out and about doing improvisation and about albeit in a different form. I am so proud of him.”
Helen, who shares memories of Tony in the paperback release of her Mirror Book I’m Not Bitter, is among the friends organising a comedy night to honour Tony at London’s Phoenix Arts Club on June 9.
Helen adds: “The place holds seriously happy memories of late nights and excitement and I for one will be there. RIP Tony.”
The updated paperback version of Helen’s book I’m Not Bitter (Mirror Books) is out now and includes an exclusive tribute to Tony. Read more at mirror.co.uk