Lord of the Rings actor Sir Ian McKellen and a variety of other gay celebs in England have sunk as low as they can go for a new TV campaign to support LGBT youth in crisis.

The well-respected Albert Kennedy Trust urgently needs funds to support young people who have been ejected from their homes after they came out as LGBT.

The charity’s new campaign What Might Have Been puts well-known out celebrities in the shoes of society’s most downtrodden.

Sir Ian is a poor homeless man being taunted by youths:

Meanwhile, dance-pop singer and former glamour model Samantha Fox, who came out with a same-sex partner back in 2003, plays a cheap prostitute:

Another hard-hitting ad sees young gay actor Andrew Hayden-Smith as a self-injecting drug addict:

Shown below, the ‘behind the scenes’ doco about the high-profile campaign explains why the support from the famous faces is so important to the organisation, which helps thousands of young people in London and around the UK each year.

“I’ve been a supporter of the Albert Kennedy Trust since it was founded,” says Sir Ian. “It’s one of those charities that you can explain in one sentence, and everybody gets it.

“It’s just depressing that 25 years on there’s more need for the Trust than ever.”