David Soul has spent more than two decades at the receiving end of tabloid vitriol, so perhaps he should not have raised his hopes too high when he was invited to take part in a documentary about his life.

But the former star of the 70s cop show Starsky and Hutch was so incensed by how the Channel 4 programme turned out on Sunday night that he yesterday launched a withering attack on the station.

Soul accused the broadcaster of having "manipulated" his life story to produce sensational television in order to chase ratings.

The former idol, who is back in the global spotlight after the release of a Hollywood movie version of Starsky and Hutch, claimed Channel 4 had "regurgitated" familiar "salacious" episodes such as his problems with drink, his violence to a former wife and money problems. He also claimed undue emphasis was put on an account he gave to the film-makers of how as a very young man he came into contact with gay men at Andy Warhol's Factory studio.

Soul said he agreed to cooperate after being convinced that the intention was to produce a serious film. But he believes the hour-long programme, He's Starsky, I'm Hutch, was driven downmarket following the intervention of Channel 4 bosses.

Soul's stinging criticisms came in a letter sent to Channel 4 and released to the Guardian. He wrote: "I am hugely disappointed with the tone of this tabloid bullshit ... This, dare I call it a documentary, panders to preconceptions you [Channel 4] must think a British television audience has about Hollywood."

Soul has not been afraid to take on the media in the past, once winning damages from the Daily Mirror after a columnist described a play he starred in as the worst he had seen, though the critic had not attended.

In his letter to Channel 4 the actor claimed: "You had an opportunity to say something to entertain and enlighten your audience and you chose to pander."

He continued: "What is basically regurgitated here is the tragic story of a 'hero' who is destroyed by personal failings in the face of adversity, a pathetic story of a man who had everything and 'threw it all away'. How bleeding original."

Soul claimed "glaring omissions" were made about his personal history, which has included time spent campaigning for social justice and political change. He added: "There's so much more to me. There is so much more to life."

Channel 4 denied that the film, made by production company Monkey, had sensationalised or manipulated Soul's story. Commissioning editor Andrew MacKenzie said Monkey had "worked to the highest journalistic standards and produced a very sympathetic, fair and balanced film about David Soul based on many hours of filming with him."