TV bosses probe star drug claim

Television star Craig Charles today became the latest celebrity to be caught on camera apparently taking drugs.

Pictures in the Daily Mirror today allegedly showed the Coronation Street actor smoking crack cocaine in the back of a car during a journey from London to Manchester.

The Mirror said the pictures were taken after the star finished his funk show on BBC digital radio channel 6 Music.

He was picked up by his personal driver and driven north.

At the end of the journey the 41-year-old was dropped off at his flat yards from the Coronation Street set, but had to be taken to a hotel for the night after he locked himself out, the newspaper said.

Liverpool-born Charles made his name playing Dave Lister in Red Dwarf, has hosted the BBC2’s Robot Wars and taken part in Channel 4’s The Games.

Last year the married father-of-three joined the cast of Coronation Street playing cabbie Lloyd Mullaney.

The BBC and Coronation Street producers ITV Granada both said they would be looking into the allegations of drug taking by Charles.

A spokeswoman for Coronation Street said: “We will be seeing Craig today to discuss the situation and we will be looking into the allegations.”

A BBC spokeswoman said: “These are very serious allegations and we shall be talking to Craig Charles about them.”

Charles was arrested in 1994 over accusations he raped an ex-girlfriend, but after spending several months in custody he was cleared following a trial at London’s Southwark Crown Court.

The latest cocaine allegations against a celebrity come after the Metropolitan Police was forced to drop its investigation into supermodel Kate Moss’s drug taking because they were unable to identify which substance she was consuming in pictures published in the Daily Mirror.

The newspaper said today it would make its “dossier of evidence” on Charles available to police.