Actor Charles Lawson, best known as Jim McDonald on Coronation Street, has said he was diagnosed with exhaustion before suffering a mini-stroke on stage.
A doctor asked him whether he would consider pulling out of playing Ian Rankin’s detective Rebus, he said.
But Lawson responded that he would “feel like a chicken” if he did.
He went on to have the stroke mid-show in Edinburgh this month. “I knew I hadn’t a clue what was happening, and then it just all went black,” he said.
Lawson is now back on tour in Rebus – Long Shadows with co-stars Cathy Tyson and John Stahl, and told BBC Breakfast he feels “very well”.
The doctor who originally diagnosed his exhaustion asked how he would feel about pulling out. “And I couldn’t because I was playing bloody Rebus,” Lawson said.
He told viewers who may be in a similar position to “listen to your alarm bells”.
