{"id":274643,"date":"2025-11-21T02:19:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T02:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/274643\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T02:19:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T02:19:14","slug":"bbc-star-forced-to-remortgage-home-following-worst-moment-of-his-life-causing-him-to-collapse-on-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/274643\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC star forced to remortgage home following ‘worst moment’ of his life causing him to collapse on stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

British actor Robert Glenister, best known for his roles in the BBC dramas Spooks and Sherwood, has admitted he is still battling “anger” after a long-running financial ordeal.\"LONDON,Robert Glenister reflected on what he described as a “horrendous” period in his life(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

A BBC actor<\/a> has revealed he had to remortgage his house following “one of the worst times” in his life, which saw him collapse on stage in the West End. Robert Glenister<\/a>, known for his roles in the BBC dramas Spooks and Sherwood, has admitted that he still struggles with “anger” stemming from a prolonged financial burden he says caused him to “black out”.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on what he described as a “horrendous” period of his life, following a reported tribunal loss against HM Revenue and Customs<\/a> (HMRC), the 65-year-old opened up about the severe impact the ordeal had on his health.<\/p>\n

He said the saga, which involved him claiming that HMRC had unfairly demanded back-dated National Insurance (NI) payments, “carried on for years” and ultimately resulted in a terrifying on-stage incident.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the the i Paper<\/a>, Robert said: “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.”<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,Robert said his ordeal “carried on for years”(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

He also pointed out that people often “assume” those working in TV are wealthy, but stressed this is “not the case,” acknowledging that while some may be “not all” are, and admitted he still carries “so much anger”.<\/p>\n

Robert continued: “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.<\/p>\n

“I must have fainted. We cancelled the show that night. And then it happened again after the press night. I just thought: ‘I can’t do this.’ I took a week off and it was all right but I never relaxed. And during another play, I couldn’t concentrate. I just wasn’t there.”<\/p>\n

In another candid revelation, Robert admitted that the fear of something like this happening again “never really goes away,” adding that he dislikes that it “scares” him, especially since his acting ambitions have always been focused on theatre.<\/p>\n

However, it is not the first time that the actor has publicly addressed his HMRC ordeal.<\/p>\n

Back in 2024, The Telegraph reported that both Robert and his brother, Philip, were impacted by what it described as “retrospective changes” to NI.<\/p>\n

It reported that around 60 actors, who had believed they were classified as freelancers, were informed by HMRC that they were in fact employees, following a “four-year decision-making process”.<\/p>\n

\"RobertRobert, above preforming on stage at London’s Bush Theatre, confessed that he continues to have “so much anger”(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

It meant that actors then owed thousands in back-dated tax to HMRC, the Mirror<\/a> reports. Meanwhile, Robert, who previously appealed the decision but was unsuccessful, could be on the hook for the staggering reported sum of \u00a3150,000.<\/p>\n

Speaking about the house he had to remortgage, he said: “To be honest I think we will have to sell it in a couple of years. Because I simply can\u2019t afford to pay it off. I don\u2019t mind if HMRC wants to change the law \u2013 but just tell people when you do it and don\u2019t make it retrospective. It\u2019s not fair.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British actor Robert Glenister, best known for his roles in the BBC dramas Spooks and Sherwood, has admitted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[243,6491,96,1892,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-274643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-bbc","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-taxes","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}