'I don't know if it was the wine, the prayers or the bullishness' - Timothy Spall on cancer survival

The Wolf Hall actor says he was saved from needing a bone marrow transplant 30 years ago when test results dramatically changed

Wolf Hall actor Timothy Spall says he doesn’t know if it was prayers, a bullish attitude or a vat of wine that helped him with his “miracle” recovery from leukaemia nearly 30 years ago.

The actor’s first reaction to being told he had leukaemia in 1996, aged 39, was to pray. “I got down on my hands and knees immediately and prayed to God. Please God don't let me die. I've got three children, two of them are young. Please. Please.” At the time he was starring in Mike Leigh’s award-winning Secrets and Lies but instead of going to the Cannes Film Festival, he was diverted to London’s UCH, where they discovered that 80% of his blood was carrying leukaemia. He started chemotherapy the following morning and was told by doctors that had he gone to Cannes he’d probably have collapsed and died.

“The prognosis is that it’s gonna kill you quick but if they get rid of it, it’s going, and you stay in remission,” he tells Gyles Brandreth’s Rosebud podcast.” You’ve got a very strong chance if you don’t get it back after a certain amount of time.”

Dad-of-three Spall feared for his life again when he was told he needed a bone marrow transplant because of the damage caused by the chemotherapy treatment. “I had this terrible moment where I thought I might not make it,” he explained. “They thought I'd relapsed. The massive amounts of chemo, they zero you out. They were going to give me a bone marrow transplant.

“I went home and drank a bottle of Slovenian Pinot Noir and a bottle of French Pinot Noir.” He says a few days later he woke up with a total conviction that that he was going to be OK, which he describes as a “bullish epiphany”. The first thing he did was share his thoughts with wife of 43 years, Shane. “I could see she was very upset and she was being very stoical. I said: 'I just want to tell you something darling: I will not die. I am not going to die’. And she said: ‘Alright, fair enough.’”

Two days later the Harry Potter and Auf Wiedersehen Pet star was called in by the doctors for re-testing. “I went back. They took another bone marrow test. It was negative. Now, to this day I don't know if it was the Slovenian wine, the prayers or the bullishness that did it, or whether they made a mistake.

“Something happened. I think the refusal to die, a bit of faith and a lot of missiles of goodwill from friends - somewhere, that bone marrow changed. My romantic side says miracle, my spiritual side says miracle.” Spall, whose eldest son is Shaun of the Dead actor Rafe, celebrated the great news by “drinking far too much” before realising that he needed to quit the booze for good.

Now teetotal, Spall and says he gets plenty of fun from his pastime of painting while splitting his time between his flat in London and living on boats and barges with Shane, in between his acting jobs. He says he and his wife are “joined at the hip” and she accompanies him wherever he’s working on location. “Because we had our kids young, Shane comes with me. I always feel at home wherever I am. Wherever she is, I’m at home.”

The actor has now been in remission for so long he no longer has annual tests. Last year he won the best actor Bafta for his role in BBC drama The Sixth Commandment. From Sunday he will appear as the Duke of Norfolk, who was willing to let his own niece go to the block if he could hold on to his own power, in the Wolf Hall follow-up The Mirror and the Light. It follows a nine year gap since the last one, Bring Up the Bodies. The cast is led by Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis as Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII.

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