Regular Loose Women panelist Sunetra Sarker provoked ire among daytime TV viewers today (January 2) with a quip about panic attacks, directed at Coronation Street star Simon Gregson.

Today’s episode of Loose Women saw Simon open up about his past experiences of having panic attacks.

Loose Women panelist Sunetra Sarker asks Simon Gregson about panic attacks

“It all came to a head in 2015,” Simon said. “I kept having anxiety attacks, panic attacks. Which is so bizarre, because I’ve been having them all day today. I was like: ‘There’s no way I can go on,’” he explained.

Sunetra replied that it “just goes to show how normal we all are, because these are things that happen. You don’t know when it’ll happen.”

“It just hits you like a tonne of bricks and makes you completely incapacitated,” Simon added. “I’ve been having them since 1990 but I just got on with it.

“But then when I had children and they were noticing it and they were getting anxious, I thought, I’ve passed it on. It’s like a cold – I’ve given it to them.”

At the time, he had no idea what the episodes were. He told the Loose Women studio audience he had “every kind of test known to man”, including brain scans and ECTs. He saw ear, nose and throat specialists and wore heart monitors.

But still, he was “constantly ill”.

He self-medicated with alcohol, which he warns against. Despite seeming like a “good short term cure”, alcohol can also be a “long-term problem”, he said.

The Coronation Street actor says the ‘best thing’ is to talk

ITV producers arranged for a doctor to help Simon out on set. He also saw a psychiatrist because his mental health was causing him to believe he was suffering from a mystery illness.

“The best thing to do is talk,” he insisted, during the interview. “Go to your GP.”

Wrapping up the segment on mental health, Sunetra Sarker informed Simon Gregson that she had one last question for him – a question so important that he “might have a panic attack”.

“Simon, before you go, we have one very important question that we need to ask you. So important, honestly, you might have a panic attack it’s so important.

“Robbie Williams’ biopic has been released to rave reviews and he revealed that he wanted a monkey to play him because he likens himself to a performing monkey. So we need to ask you, which animal would play you in your life story?”

How did it land? About as well as you imagine it would. Simon laughed it off, revealing he’d want a border collie to play him. But viewers were less than impressed.

“Did she really just say that to Simon Gregson after he opened up about having one before the show?” one viewer wrote on social media afterwards. “I thought exactly the same,” said another.

Another posted: “Did Sunetra really just say that to him!?”

“Unreal!” wrote a fourth.