A British actor known for his roles in the BBC series Spooks and Sherwood, Robert Glenister, revealed that he is still plagued by “anger” in the wake of a difficult financial ordeal.
A BBC star has revealed that he had to remortgage his house after “one of the worst times” in his life saw him pass out on stage in the West End. Robert Glenister, a British actor known for his roles in the BBC drama shows Spooks and Sherwood, has disclosed that he continues to be plagued by “anger” in the aftermath of a prolonged financial burden that he claims led to him “blacking out”.
In a candid reflection on what he called a “horrendous” period in his life, when he reportedly lost a tribunal against HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the 65-year-old described the shocking toll the saga had taken on his health.
He claimed his ordeal, which involved him alleging that HMRC had unjustly ordered back-dated payments for National Insurance (NI) contributions, “carried on for years” and led to a terrifying on-stage incident.
Robert told the i Paper: “The legal battle with HMRC was probably one of the worst times in my life. It carried on for years and was horrendous. I didn’t mind the changing of the rules [and paying] but making it retrospective was unfair. I had to remortgage the house.”
He also noted that people “assume” those who work in TV are well off, but this is “not the case”, conceding that some do, but “not all”, as he confessed he continues to have “so much anger”.
Robert added: “It also impacted on my mental health. It took a toll. There wasn’t a day that went by over the course of four to five years that I wasn’t thinking about it. It led to me blacking out on stage in the West End.
I must have had a bad breath. That night, we called off the show. After the press night, it resumed. I was just saying, “I can’t do this.” I took a week off, and it went well, but I never relaxed. And I struggled to concentrate during a different play. Simply put, I was not there. “
In a further admission, Robert said that, now this has occurred, the fear he might see a repeat of the episode “never really goes away”, adding that he doesn’t like that it “scares” him, as his acting ambitions were centred on working in theatre.
It’s not the first time that the actor has publicly addressed his HMRC ordeal.
In 2024, The Telegraph reported that both Robert and his brother, Philip (of Life on Mars fame) were impacted by what it described as “retrospective changes” to NI.
It noted that about 60 actors who had been working under the assumption that they were in the category of freelancers were told by the HMRC that they were actually employees, following a “four-year decision-making process”.
It meant the actors then owed thousands in back-dated tax. Meanwhile, Robert, who, as mentioned previously, appealed this but lost, would be on the hook for the staggering reported sum of £150,000.
Source: Mirror
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