This was somebody I never knew but it was my house, it was my pool and I felt responsible for that

Michael Barrymore

"I do feel responsible, I'm responsible for the house... I'm not responsible for his demise."

Mr Barrymore, who is undergoing treatment for alcoholism and drug addiction, explained how he panicked and fled from his home when he realised what had happened.

"This was somebody I never knew but it was my house, it was my pool and I felt responsible for that. I didn't know how it happened or what happened, to this day I don't know what happened to him."

Police say they are continuing to investigate the death of Mr Lubbock, but that two men previously arrested will not be prosecuted.

Asked about suggestions that there had been drugs and sex at his house that night, Mr Barrymore insisted he had no idea how Mr Lubbock received serious sexual injuries.

Stuart Lubbock died in March this year

"I have no idea whatsoever... there was no sex in that house that night. There was no orgy that I was aware of at all, it is totally fabricated."

The entertainer said he was scared about going back to work.

"I'm frightened, I'm terrified, the bravado has all gone," he said.

The 49-year-old presenter also lost his 87-year-old mother, Mary, earlier this month, when she died of cancer.

London Weekend Television (LWT), the ITV company which employs the entertainer, is considering his future and it is not yet clear whether or when he will again appear on television.

Last Tuesday, Mr Barrymore won a National TV Award for his show My Kind Of Music, which many saw as a public vote of confidence in the star.

However, he was not at the ceremony to receive the award.

The interview will be shown as part of the ITV programme "Tonight With Trevor McDonald", to be broadcast at 2100 GMT on Tuesday.