Steve Coogan says ‘tragic’ death of Greed co-star Caroline Flack raises issues about social media

Steve Coogan has said that his “heart goes out” to Caroline Flack’s family after her death.

The former Love Island host makes a posthumous appearance in the actor’s forthcoming satirical film Greed, presenting Coogan’s character Sir Richard McCreadie with a cheque.

In the trailer for the Michael Winterbottom-directed feature, she says: “Now it’s time for the man you’ve all been waiting for… the king of the high street.”

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Coogan described Flack’s death as “tragic” and said it had raised “lots of issues” around social media.

Flack was found dead at her east London home on Saturday, having taken her own life aged 40.

Coogan said: “It was awful. Obviously my heart goes out to her loved ones and her family. It’s tragic. There are lots of issues that are raised by it.”

The actor added that the issues include social media and are “to do with the press [and] the discourse that takes place specifically on social media.” 

“But I don’t particularly want to use what is a tragic death and a tragic occurrence to make political capital out of it,” he added. 

Coogan suggested that “the problem with social media is that people don’t see the whites of the eyes of the person they are talking to, so they behave in quite a reprehensible way.”

He added: “You can wax lyrical about it all but I just think people need to step back and question how they behave, question how they talk to each other.

“We can disagree with each other but we don’t have to be disagreeable.”

The Alan Partridge star, who plays a retail tycoon in the new film, said he avoids social media because he worried he would be “sucked into a vortex of argument with someone whose opinion I might not particularly respect”.

Greed is in UK cinemas now. With additional reporting by Press Association.

If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please contact the Samaritans on 116123 (free) or email jo@samaritans.org.