Sir Cliff Richard will never get over the trauma of having his home raided by the police

Speaking to Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 4's 'Desert Island Discs', Cliff said: "It's not something you can wipe from your memory. I couldn't stand up and I found myself absolutely weeping like a child. I was never suicidal but I thought a couple of times I might die … I'm thinking, ‘I don't want to kill myself, but this could kill me.'

"But I survived it all and that's the main thing for me, and I'm past it now. I don't think I'll ever get over it, though."

Cliff went on to successfully sue the BBC for broadcasting the raid on TV.

The veteran star also opened up about his reasons for not marrying when he was a rising star in the 1950s.

He said: "People marrying and singing now doesn't have anywhere near the effect it would have had when I started in the 1950s. It was just the way it was. People would say, ‘The girls are all squealing at you, you have to be just available.'

"I was focused. That focus was not going to change. I was never going to give up that career I fought heavily for and am still battling for. Now it doesn't matter – Gary Barlow is married and has children, no one minds, and that's how it should have been then. But it wasn't."

Meanwhile, Cliff previously insisted he would never have got through the last years without his Christian faith, after being accused of historic sexual abuse in 2014 for which he was investigated for two years but never charged.

He said of his religion: "I can only say it's the major thing that helped me get through the past four years. Having no faith would have left me hopelessly lost and in the dark. My good friends were always there for me and I couldn't have done without them either.

"But in the end, when you say good night and you close your eyes, there's nobody else but you. But for me there was someone. I never felt neglected or ignored by God. And that was a major factor. I believe it's God's presence that makes you see how committed other people are to you."