ITV DI Ray's Ian Puleston-Davies on 'disabling' health condition that has affected him every day since childhood

Ian Puleston-Davies
-Credit: (Image: BBC/Fifty Fathoms/James Stack)


Actor Ian Puleston-Davies has openly spoken about his struggles with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder [OCD] - revealing he once couldn't get out of bed for fearing he would break his neck. The Welsh actor is returning to our screens tonight in the second series of ITV hit DI Ray, playing Supt Ross Beardsmore.

The 66-year-old, best known for his role as builder Owen Armstrong in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street from 2010 to 2015, made a documentary for BBC Wales in 2017 about his daily struggles with OCD. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder can be a 'seriously disabling condition', according to Ian.

The clinically recognised disorder causes sufferers to experience intensely negative and intrusive thoughts that cause huge anxiety. They then carry out repetitive behaviour to try and quieten the intrusive thoughts. Ian revealed how the disorder has negatively affected his life from a young age.

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He previously said: "I was diagnosed at 35 when I went to get some help with a condition that had become so disabling I was struggling to get out of bed in the morning, for fear of breaking my neck.

"But the real answer is, I'd known I was different from as early as seven years old. And there's one particular memory that's become stamped in my mind. I grew up in north Wales in the town of Flint and have happy memories as a school boy at Ysgol Gwynedd. But it was also where I started to show signs of OCD."

He added: "I loved football but for some reason, every time I was passed the ball I would anxiously check the flies of my shorts to make sure they were done up. You can't help noticing something like that, and I stood out. Back then, of course, I just thought I was a bit odd. Now I realise that my "habits" were in fact my OCDs."

He revealed some of his obsessions include worrying about stains on a piece of paper, to fearing he could injure himself by 'simply sitting down'. Ian added: "There's part of me that knows my fears are irrational, but that doesn't help. Once I've got a thought in my head, I just keep over-thinking it.

"For years I couldn't go to the cinema because I'd be obsessing about why a couple sitting behind me had decided to watch that film that night, why he chose that tie, what was in her handbag, where were they going to eat later, and so on and so on."

The actor continued: "Compulsions can be embarrassing, and we all go to great lengths to hide them. OCD is not nicknamed the "secretive disorder" for nothing. The good news is there is help for OCD. NHS guidelines recommend OCD should be treated with medication and therapy."

DI Ray airs tonight (Sunday, October 20) at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.