As a television programme Danniella Westbrook In Therapy was a serious success. Drama, temper tantrums, raw emotion… it had the lot. As a remedy for the troubled actress’s many problems, it left a lot to be desired.

A promising start as the former EastEnders star turned notorious cocaine addict began her stint on Channel 5’s sofa full of good intent. After a traumatic 18 months she conceded it was time to seek professional advice.

“I’ve lost my marriage,” she sighed. “I’ve lost my children. I’ve had a breakdown. All my possessions in my house were robbed. My way doesn’t work and I’m ready for some help.”

Sadly, her soul-searching sessions with therapist Mandy Saligary soon took their toll. And it wasn’t long before Danniella went into furious meltdown and made a sad spectacle of herself.

Compelling viewing, undoubtedly. But painful to watch. All hell broke loose when Mandy tried to force her petulant patient to take responsibility for her own lateness. She’d kept the crew waiting. But Ms Westbrook was having none of it. It was all down to the London traffic.

Suddenly, she exploded in rage and launched an excruciating foul-mouthed tirade. “I’m a working class girl,” she snarled. “I think you’re taking a f***ing liberty. Do you know what, Love? Crack right on because I’m bored. You’re boring me.”

And with that she stormed out and into the street where she told production staff: “Get a car. I’m not sitting her with this c*** no more. Who the f*** does she think she is? She talked to me like I was a bit of sh**.” The impeccably polite Ms Saligary had done nothing of the sort.

Then, aiming fire at the very notion of therapy, the seething celebrity added: “Stick your American jargon up you’re a***hole. It’s all a load of w**k. A load of time wasting money for middle class c***s.” Considered, measured, carefully thought out… Danniella’s volcanic outburst was none of these things.

It was like witnessing the death of a career for the second time. The first tragedy unfolded 15 years ago when that shocking picture emerged of her drugs ravaged nose.

When Katie Price did her In Therapy show she handled it with aplomb. Honest, vulnerable and well mannered, the glamour girl carried it off with style. Danniella… not so much.

But after insisting she was “just getting paid to do a job”, she reeled off a series of harrowing revelations. She was sexually abused at the age of seven. By 14, she was enjoying drug-fuelled nights on the West End club scene. And she endured a horrific ordeal at the hands of three men who repeatedly raped her for three days.

To which Mandy sceptically responded: “I’ve no idea if this is the truth. But I’m absolutely sure this is her truth.”

By now distraught Danniella was weeping. “I can’t go on like this,” she sobbed. “I haven’t got another relapse in me.” That much seemed undeniably true. She was clearly exhausted.

At one point she defiantly declared that she didn’t care about taking drugs and “couldn’t give a monkeys” what people thought of her. Then she suddenly contradicted herself and admitted she was “ashamed” to be best known for snorting coke.

But that is her story. The little girl star who grew up to be a big girl lost. By the end of an extraordinary hour, things appeared to be looking up. Now 42, she was helping run a Cockney pie and mash restaurant and attempting to get her life back on track.

Poor Danniella set out to take the In Therapy money and run. But she’s a lot more fragile than she thinks she is. Never in control, she spectacularly unravelled. Did her on-screen confessional help her? Should it ever have been served up as TV entertainment? You decide.