John Cleese says vertigo has made him terrified of using stairs
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John Cleese has disclosed that he has been unable to cure his sudden onset of vertigo and that it had now left him terrified of using stairs.
The actor and writer, who towers over most people at 6ft 4in, said he developed the sense of spinning dizziness more than a year ago, but a neurologist he visited had no answer to the problem.
Mr Cleese, 84, said he found he now crouches because of his issue.
He said: “I’ve had it over a year, and I can’t get rid of it.
“So whenever I’m walking down, I’m sort of touching the wall, almost making sure.
‘Big fear’
“My big fear is going down stairs where there’s no banister.
“I went to see a top neurologist, and I knew him personally because he’s a friend of my wife, and he explained it’s sort of balance – to do with the ears and eyes and the pressure on the feet, that’s a large part of it.
“But he said it can be very difficult to get rid of.”
Mr Cleese, who was often seen going down stairs as Basil Fawlty, his hotelier character in Fawlty Towers, the sitcom, also joked that the neurologist gave him some obvious advice.
Mr Cleese added on Chris Evans’s podcast: “As I was leaving, he said, ‘John,’ and I turned round, and he said, ‘Try not to fall over.’
“And I said, ‘You have to be very highly qualified to tell people not to fall over.’
“But I now say that to people – ‘Bye-bye, try not to fall over.’
“I’ve got a hell of a way to go. I’ve got 6ft 4in to go.
“I crouch a bit now.”
