A fat suit “saved” Sir Ian McKellan’s ribs after a fall from a stage in the West End earlier this summer, the veteran actor has revealed.

Sir Ian, 85, lost his footing during a Player Kings fight scene in June at the Noel Coward Theatre and has since suffered from wrist and neck injuries.

He pulled out of the performance’s national tour to focus on his recovery, but told Saga magazine it could have been worse if it weren’t for his clothing.

“My chipped vertebrae and fractured wrist are not yet mended,” said Sir Ian, who played John Falstaff in the play.

“I don’t go out because I get nervous in case someone bangs into me, and I’ve got agonising pains in my shoulders to do with my whole frame having been jolted.

“But I was wearing a fat suit for Falstaff and that saved my ribs and other joints.”

The fall was “horrible”, he added, happening during a battle scene, when his foot got caught in a chair and he slid on newspaper scattered across the stage.

“The more I tried to get rid of it, the faster I proceeded down a step, onto the forestage, and then on to the lap of someone in the front row,” he said.

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“I started screaming, ‘help me’ and then ‘I’m sorry, I don’t do this’. Extraordinary things. I thought it was the end of something. It was very upsetting.”

“The end”, he clarifies, did not mean his death, but his participation in the play.

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“I have to keep assuring myself that I’m not too old to act and it was just a bloody accident,” he added.

“I don’t feel guilty, but the accident has let down the whole production,” he said.

“I feel such shame. I was hoping to be able to rejoin the play on the tour, but I couldn’t.”

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While Sir Ian was unable to return to the performance, he said “there are suggestions we’ll do (the play) again, but we’ll see”.

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