Timothy Spall on illness, weight loss and his message to the younger generation

Timothy Spall is an award-winning actor who received an OBE in 2000. Born in London, he's been acting all his life and is known for his diverse roles, in films and dramas including Hamlet, Topsy Turvey and Harry Potter. He won the Best Actor Bafta last year for BBC drama The Sixth Commandment.

The 68-year-old actor spoke to Saga Magazine ahead of his new BBC comedy drama, Death Valley.

On winning a Bafta for the BBC drama

I thought it was a shoo-in for Brian Cox because Succession was such a popular show, and he was brilliant. It was my sixth Bafta nomination, and I got used to doing the 'smile', so I thought it was going to be another one of those.

When I won it, I was genuinely surprised.

The weight loss that changed his career

I wanted to lose weight for a part in The Enfield Haunting, so I stopped drinking wine, and that regulated my diet. The weight came off and I started to get parts I wouldn’t have had before. 

Funnily enough, I’m currently filming a Netflix movie directed by Kate Winslet called Goodbye June where I had to fatten up by wearing a strap-on false belly!

I play dad to three girls [Kate, Andrea Riseborough and Toni Collette] and I have a son [Johnny Flynn], and their mum is played by Helen Mirren. It was lovely taking the belly off at night!

On being diagnosed with leukaemia at 39

Outof the blue I was diagnosed with a life-threatening disease called acute myeloid leukaemia. When I was told I had it, I got down on my knees and asked God to spare me for my family.

There was a time when they thought I might not make it. The only really unbearable thing was what my family would do if I went. I wouldn’t be there to look after them, and that was my job as a husband and father. 

The pain and the horror of what me dying would do to the people I loved was the only unbearable side of it. The rest I could take. 

His message for the younger generation 

For children to learn at school that old people are just young people who have been around a lot longer! Just because people get old doesn’t mean we are a different species.

That was the lovely thing about The Sixth Commandment – it showed old people having sex lives. I mean, who wants to think about old people’s sex lives! 

There’s a kind of writing off of older people. But if you can maintain your health and a sense of being involved, there is no reason to stop being active. In fact, older people are doing a lot more things than ever before. 

Being married for 44 years

Wherever I go for work, whether it’s in the UK or abroad, my wife Shane, who is a writer, always comes with me now the kids are grown up.

We’ve been married for 44 years and are inseparable. Joined at the hip. We got married four months after we met. I was just in love with her. She is also my best mate. 

His new BBC One comedy drama Death Valley

John Chapel is a reclusive national treasure and widower in his sixties who made his name as a detective in a fictional television drama. Janie (Gwyneth Keyworth) is a local detective in her thirties who was a huge fan of his TV character.

She calls him a mad old hermit as he has shut himself away with only his cat Alan to talk to, but she also brings a disarming eccentricity. When they are not arguing, they become best friends who depend on each other. They are an oddball detective duo, but it works.