East 17 star 'suicide bid'

The depressed 30-year-old is said to have swallowed sleeping pills and downed 10 cans of lager before making several bizarre phone calls to friends. They were so worried by the calls that they called an ambulance and he was taken to the casualty department at Whipps Cross Hospital.

Harvey was treated for an overdose and advised by doctors to seek psychiatric help .

Television viewers witnessed his depression late last year when he broke down on I'm A Celebrity... following the death of his grandmother, with whom he lived. On the second day of the series he wept and admitted he found the loss "overpowering", before quitting the show.

During his latest crisis, his girlfriend, model Emma B, appears not to have been around to comfort Harvey at his home in Walthamstow and friends say he was feeling "extremely low" and "desperate".

A source close to Harvey told the Sun: "Brian has been quite ill recently. He's had a lot to deal with. His grandmother - who he was very close to - died, his music career was going nowhere and he sensed his relationship with Emma was in trouble.

"He had hoped that going into I'm A Celeb would help give him another crack at a recording deal. He is now planning to get counselling."

At the peak of his career he was topping the charts with hits such as Stay Another Day.

Harvey's problems have been well documented after he was thrown out of East 17 in 1997 for boasting about taking ecstasy.

He struggled on, recording Loving You with Wyclef Jean.

In 2001 he was scalped with an axe or large knife after being surrounded by a group of four or five men in Nottingham following a sell-out gig at a nightclub. He required cosmetic surgery.

In 2002 he appeared in court charged with drug offences and last year he filed for bankruptcy while still trying to resurrect an ailing music career.