Sir David Jason collapsed at home after COVID-19 left him too weak to stand

Sir David Jason has revealed he collapsed at home after contracting COVID-19 which left him too weak to stand.

The 82-year-old star of Only Fools And Horses and Open All Hours told how he caught the virus over the summer and lay on the floor of the bedroom for some time after falling on the way to the bathroom.

Sir David told BBC Breakfast: "I got it seriously bad. Because all the muscles weren't working, I collapsed and I fell against the radiator... I was so weak, I couldn't get up."

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He went on: "I crawled to the bed. The muscles weren't working and I used the bed to try and stand up so that I could go to where I wanted to get, and also get back into bed, and I couldn't…

Watch: David Jason collapsed with paralysed arms and legs during 'seriously bad' Covid battle

"I tried for about a quarter of an hour, trying all sorts of things to stand up so I could walk about."

The actor - known for roles in A Touch Of Frost and The Darling Buds Of May - detailed how he tried to move to the door to call for help, but ended up with carpet burns on his face after rolling about like a "walrus".

Sir David explained: "My arms wouldn't work and my legs wouldn't work, so being a very creative and inventive person, I thought, how will I get from here to the door?

"You know when you see a walrus if you watch David Attenborough, and they walk on land, they crawl on land? That's what I did.

"But in order to do that, I had to use my head. So now I'm lying face down on the ground, and in order to get to the door - and the arms really weren't working and the legs weren't working - I was using my head to drag me to the door.

"So just as I got to the door, the door opened... and it was my good lady wife and she managed to help me get back into bed. But later on the next day, I got carpet burns all down on my forehead and across the top of my nose."

The Danger Mouse star lives with second wife Gill Hinchcliffe who he married in 2005.

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Sir David is perhaps best known as wheeler dealer Del Boy in BBC sit com Only Fools And Horses and in recent years had hosted a series of documentaries about motor vehicles and WWII.