I was looking through a national newspaper recently when I was saddened by an item on one of its entertainment pages.

A lad of 13 had hanged himself. He was an actor who had recently contributed much to the gaiety of the action in a popular soap.

In the programme he had taken the role of a vulnerable adolescent. His death therefore seemed particularly poignant.

We know that, very occasionally, theatre actors have found an emotional involvement and commitment to a part they are playing too much to sustain over a period of time and too much to bear. So they have left and an understudy has taken over.

Might it be possible that the same fate had overtaken this promising young man but without such a safety net? Perhaps not.

TV seems to put extra pressures on actors through tight schedules of rehearsals and performances.

Is there someone in the chain of TV programme makers who has a duty of care towards its actors, especially the young?

Or is acting a life of hard knocks and you either come through or you don't.

-David Anthony, Portslade