A landlady found the letter on his bed in the serviced apartment — not knowing it was part of the script for his latest TV show.
It read: “This world is too much for me. I can’t go on with all the disastrous things that keep happening around me.”
Fearing the actor was about to harm himself for real, she rang the producers of ITV1’s The Good Samaritan from the apartment block in Manchester’s Princess Street.
In the comedy-drama, to be screened later this year, 41-year-old Shane is filmed standing at the top of the Renaissance hotel in the city as his character contemplates throwing himself off.
The former EastEnders star said: “The suicide note was part of a script. But the landlady called the TV company because she was convinced I was going to jump off a bridge or something.
“It really was very funny afterwards when the producers called me to check that everything was OK.”
Not now Alfie!