Sophia Myles insists Noel Clarke is not a sexual predator after he was accused by more than 20 women of inappropriate behaviour in allegations which surfaced last year.

The allegations against Noel, spanning a 15-year period, include claims of unwanted touching or groping, sexually inappropriate behaviour and comments on set, the covert filming of a naked audition and the sharing of explicit pictures without consent.

Speaking out in defence of Noel, Sophia, 42, said in an audio clip circulating on social media: ‘I know wholeheartedly, Noel Clarke is not a sexual predator. 

‘He’s not but that’s my opinion, you know, and if you want to base your ideas off an article you’ve read in a newspaper then feel free.’

MailOnline has contacted a representative for Sophia for further comment. 

The actress, who has been friends with Noel, 46, for a long time, appeared in the 2006 Doctor Who episode The Girl in the Fireplace alongside Noel when he played the Doctor’s companion and she played Madame de Pompadour.  

Following the allegations, in March of this year the Metropolitan Police confirmed they would not be opening an investigation into Mr Clarke as the information did not amount to the threshold for a criminal investigation.

In a statement at the time Noel, who was spotted publicly for the first time since the allegations in London last month, said he ‘vehemently’ denied ‘any sexual misconduct or criminal wrongdoing’.

He added that he was ‘deeply sorry’ if some of his actions had affected people ‘in ways I did not intend or realise’, and vowed to get professional help ‘to educate myself and change for the better’.

He is now suing The Guardian, the paper which broke news of the allegations, as well as Bafta for defamation.

Separately he is suing magazine publisher Conde Nast, which ran a piece about the controversy in its glossy men’s monthly GQ.

Mr Clarke spoke candidly about how the allegations impacted his mental health with The Mail On Sunday, revealing he at one point contemplated cutting his own throat as his mental health suffered.  

He said it was his 11-year-old child who ‘snapped him out of it’ by asking him a question – about why he was carrying a knife in his pocket.

In the past year, Noel and his wife Iris, who have been together for two decades, have had a new baby they haven’t dared tell anyone about.

The actor now has four children – prior to the new baby, his youngest son was born in 2015.

Financially the family has been left ‘running on fumes’.Most seriously, at his lowest, Noel was suicidal.

He pocketed a folding hunting knife bought as a souvenir while filming Auf Wiedersehen, Pet in Arizona 20 years ago and planned to cut his own throat.

‘I needed to do something unsurvivable,’ he said.’I was reaching for a book and the knife fell out of my pocket. My 11-year-old said, «Daddy, why have you got that?»

‘I said,»It’s just to pick the dirt out of my nails…» And he said, «Oh, OK,» and somehow the ordinariness of that snapped me out of it.  

‘Up to that point, I had been waiting for the right moment to kill myself.I was out of here. Done. I didn’t care about anything. My mind was destroyed.

‘Twenty years of work was gone in 24 hours. I lost everything,’ he told the newspaper, adding that his career has been cancelled by the allegations.

‘The company I built from the ground up, my TV shows, my movies, my book deals, the industry respect I had.

‘In my heart and my head it has damaged me in a way I cannot articulate.’

He spends his days at home caring for his new baby, on the touchline when his older children play football, going to church on Sundays and attending therapy.

He has been so traumatised he hasn’t been able to watch TV for a year because he only sees people who have turned their backs on him, he said.

Following the allegations against Noel, ITV pulled the concluding episode of drama Viewpoint, in which he starred, and broadcaster Sky, which had aired Noel’s series Bulletproof, said it was halting work with him.

Bafta also suspended his membership of the organisation and his outstanding British contribution to cinema award, which he had been given in 2021.

Noel acknowledged that not all of his past behaviour has been beyond reproach, particularly when events of almost two decades ago are judged by the standards of today.

He told The Mail On Sunday: ‘I’m not a predator.I have crossed the road to avoid walking behind women since I was 15 years old.’  

He continued: ‘I’ve been a regular dude, for sure, I flirt. Have I ever made a saucy comment? One hundred per cent. But not to the extent that it warranted the destruction of my life.

‘I can’t say I never talked about sex at work.We’re adults in a workplace and people make jokes and have conversations with each other that cross the line.

‘Sometimes you’re with each other for six, seven months, away from home. I think sometimes these are just normal, or slightly inappropriate, conversations that people have.

‘I was never involved in any conversation that I didn’t believe was mutual, wasn’t being reciprocated.Maybe I should have known better. But you know what, I didn’t always know better.’

Noel stayed off his social media such as Twitter for 13 months after he was first accused of sex offences – making a reappearance on May 28 to post the article for The Mail On Sunday.

The actor is best known for acting in Doctor Who and co-creating The Hood Trilogy.

He has also had notable roles in Brotherhood, Star Trek Into Darkness and Mute.

He was awarded BAFTA’s Orange Rising Star Award in 2009 and was awarded the 2003 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Most Promising Newcomer of 2002 for his performance in Where Do We Live at the Royal Court Theatre.   

The Samaritans are available for contact day or night, 365 days a year.You can call them for free on 116 123, email them at jo@samaritans.org, or visit samaritans.org to find your nearest branch.