The Victor of Dibley star Dawn French has shared a health update with fans from her hospital bed following an injury she sustained 14 years ago.
The beloved actress suffered a painful ordeal when she attempted to jump off a 10ft ledge on The Paul O'Grady Show.
The incident happened n 2009 in homage to the classic scene where vicar Geraldine Granger ends up chest-deep in mud after jumping into a puddle on the BBC sitcom, reports the Mirror.
Unfortunately for the 66-year-old star the copycat - which was supposed to be a tribute to the iconic comedy show - was "catastrophically misguided" according to the star, who was left 'reliant on steroids' for the pain.
Updating her loyal fans on Instagram, the comedian revealed she'd had a knee replacement after years of discomfort as she shared a snap of her bandaged leg.
Captioning the shot, she said: "It's done. New knee is in. Now we start the healing..."
Fans rushed to the comments to wish the star well, with many telling the mum-of-one to take as long as she needs, especially after being forced to cancel her latest gigs due to arthritis.
Recalling the accident at her one woman show in October, Dawn said: ''They constructed a 10ft-high hill out of scaffolding covered in AstroTurf. The idea was that there was a long enough drop for me to disappear into. But what was I falling onto? The answer is absolutely nothing. Except for 10ft below there were two very thin crash mats in a film studio with a flat concrete floor. Any fool would know this was a disaster in the making. Any fool but me."
Dawn showed the audience a photo of herself beginning to jump, admitting: "This is actually quite an emotional picture. This is the last time that my body is actually intact. This is the last time I had two functioning legs. I went 10ft down and plump on to the two crash mats. One leg twisted very awkwardly underneath me and I landed very heavily. I heard the worst twanging noise you could ever imagine."
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Earlier this month, Dawn was forced to cancel her remaining tour dates, following a setback with her arthritis.
She began on Instagram: "Hello folks. It's with a massively heavy heart and furious [expletive] that I have to admit defeat and postpone all of my remaining tour dates from tonight onwards."
Dawn continued: "My stupid selfish ol' arthritic knee has totally given up & won't let me walk. I am swearing a lot. I am bereft to let you down. Sorry. On the upside, I can have the op I so desperately need, earlier than planned. Ouch. And sorry again. We are working hard to reschedule all the dates. Bear with…"
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