'I thought if I went to sleep, I would not wake up.'
Don't have a stroke at 39,000 ft! It was terrifying, it was really scary
TV legend Chris Tarrant OBE is best known as the host of ITV game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and his cheeky persona on children’s television show Tiswas in the 70s and 80s.
Chris had a difficult year last year during the filming of his new six-part series, Extreme Railway Journeys; suffering a series of strokes and fearing he would be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
Chris had been filming in Thailand and suffered a stroke on the plane home from Bangkok to London. He said that he initially thought it was cramp and didn't alert any medical staff on the nine hour flight until he arrived back in London.
Talking about the journey, he said, "I just wanted to get home and get to a UK hospital" and spoke of what went through his mind during the flight. He said, "Fear! I thought, is this how it ends?"
On what he has taken away from his close call, Chris said, "I don't work as hard as I used to - I deliberately don't."
Chris went back to work once he had recovered but only because he wanted to. They had already filmed two episodes and he said that the production team were great. "They said, 'it's only a bit of telly. If and when you're better and you want to do more, let us know.' I thought about it a lot."
Chris Tarrant: Extreme Railway Journeys is on tonight, Channel 5 at 9pm.