Being beaten by my mother left me with enduring self-doubt

A CHILDHOOD encounter with his mother's hot temper stayed with actor Robert Lindsay for life – and is just one of a number of revelations in his new autobiography.

The book, which is out later this month, describes his childhood in Ilkeston, surrounded by "open and friendly people" with "no airs or graces" and the pride he feels for Derbyshire's "rolling hills and windswept moors".

But it was a beating with knitting needles, given by his pregnant mother, that stuck in the young Robert's mind and left him with enduring feelings of self-doubt, despite the fact he went on to become a hit on stage and screen.

In the autobiography, titled Letting Go, the star of the West End, Broadway and, most famously, TV sitcom My Family, described how when he was 10, his mother, Joyce Stevenson, became pregnant.

Tensions ran high in the household during this time because she had already suffered two near-fatal miscarriages and nearly died giving birth to Robert.

When Joyce discovered that Robert had swapped an expensive toy with a friend, she lost her temper and began beating him with a pair of knitting needles.

His two grandmothers tried to stop her, but Robert was still left with welts all over his body – as well as mental scars.

He writes: "I think that incident with my mother affected more than just my relationship with women.

"In some strange way I think it shaped the real love-hate relationship that I have with my career, with acting. I'm certainly prone to these feelings of self-doubt..."

Over time he has forgiven his mother and now acknowledges: "My mother probably frightened herself as much as she did me. She must have been in a hell of a psychological state."

It was, in fact, the death of his mother that prompted the actor to write his story.

Robert had phoned his father, Norman Stevenson, on the evening of December 31, 1999. But while the pair were chatting, Joyce suffered a heart attack and the line went dead.

Robert rushed from his Buckinghamshire home to Glenfield Hospital, in Leicester, arriving in time for his mum to smile her welcome – and then die.

In the prologue to Letting Go, he writes: "The events of that traumatic night acted like a catalyst for writing this book.

"The car dash with its rush of random memories, the idea of the generation moving on – it all mingled with those thoughts that you start to have as you get older – particularly at New Year – when you begin to reflect on your life."

On a lighter note, he recalls his early days in Ilkeston – where the people were "open and friendly and not taken to putting on airs and graces".

The town's ironworks employed most of his family at some point during his childhood and Robert spent a spell there himself, working as a sewer cleaner.

He writes: "In my more affectionate moments, I always inform people that I come from Derbyshire, giving them an image of rolling hills and windswept moors, when in fact Ilkeston... doesn't possess anything remotely romantic, apart from the aspirations of its forty thousand inhabitants."

Letting Go is published in hardback by Thorogood on October 26, priced £18.99.