BRAIN OP AGONY OF TV BRIAN.
Tetley Tea Folk star Brian Glover told last night how he thought he'd die after suffering a brain tumour."I honestly thought my number was up," said 62-year-old Brian, the voice behind the hit TV ad cartoon favourites and their "little perforations."
Speaking for the first time since a life-saving operation, the veteran actor said: "Frankly, if I hadn't gone to the hospital when I did, I might not be talking to you now.
"I knew something was wrong when my right foot went dead and I couldn't feel anything at all in it. But I only really became alarmed when I started writing some amendments to a script while I was in a taxi.
"The writing was all wrong - the words were all over the place. Then I thought of my foot and started to imagine I was having a stroke."
Ex-wrestler Brian was taken straight to hospital, where doctors diagnosed the tumour.
He was whisked into surgery for the two-hour emergency op.
"They told me that if I had left it a while longer I could have gone blind or even died," he revealed.
"It's a nightmare to even think about."
Brian has lived for 20 years with producer Tara Prem, the mother of their 14-year-old son Gus.
Tara said yesterday at their South London home: "Brian has made an incredible recovery and is getting better all the time.
"It was pretty scary and upsetting. But thankfully he is back home now where I can look after him."
Barnsley-born Brian followed his father Charlie into the wrestling game.
He was a pro at 18 - using the stage name Leon Arras - but also held down a day job as a teacher of French and English.
His showbiz break was a happy accident.
In 1968 his teacher colleague Barry Hines had just written the best- seller Kes and insisted Brian played the bullying games master in the movie adaptation.
Since then he has played roles from Soviet leader Khrushchev to God and has written and produced 20 plays.
He has had roles in hit movies Brannigan with John Wayne, The Great Train Robbery with Sean Connery, Alien III and the British cult success Leon The Pig Farmer.
His TV work includes Minder and Porridge and two years ago he starred as gay wrestler Selwyn in the ITV detective series Anna Lee.
But Brian, who has a daughter Maxine by a marriage which folded in 1974, knows the Tetley ads and more recently Allinson's bread - "wi' nowt taken out" - win him most recognition.
And he doesn't mind a bit.
"Those Tetley ads are my pension and it's a good Yorkshire product," he said proudly. "I still get asked to sign my autograph as Tetley Tea."
He goes back to hospital today for tests, admitting the scare has changed his life.
"I have had a history of blood pressure problems and I drink too much," Brian confessed.
"As it turns out that had nothing to do with the tumour.
"But what's happened to me has changed a lot of the way I look at life. You have to make the most of it while you can."
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| Author: | Wallace, Chris Hughes/Richard |
|---|---|
| Publication: | The Mirror (London, England) |
| Date: | Oct 1, 1996 |
| Words: | 524 |
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