Dawn French has revealed she's undergone a knee replacement following 14 years of crippling pain.
The 66-year-old injured her knee while recreating her famous Vicar Of Dibley puddle skit on The Paul O'Grady show back in 2009.
On Wednesday, French told her Instagram followers that she finally had surgery on the injury and it was a success.
She wrote alongside a photo of her bandaged leg: “It's done. New knee is in. Now we start the healing...”
Earlier this month, the TV star was forced to cancel her remaining tour dates following a setback with arthritis in her knee – and explained that the flare up would mean she would be going under the knife “sooner than planned”.
She shared on social media at the time: “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.
“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…”.
Back in September, French reminisced on her character Geraldine Granger's puddle plunge during her one-woman show in Exeter.
She told the audience: “One of the most enjoyable moments in my work life was being asked to jump in that puddle. It seemed to tickle a few funny bones.
“So much so that it was repeated in another episode.”
However, she stopped seeing the funny side in 2009 when she filled in for O’Grady on his Channel 4 chat show and was asked by the chat show’s producers to recreate it.
She recalled: “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.
“Then some bright spark had the idea of having a shallow silicon membrane containing two inches of water on top so that, as I jumped through, the water would splash up and look like a deep puddle.
“The producers were asking if I was all right but I said I was fine. I drove five hours home to Cornwall trying to convince myself everything was all right but it wasn't.”
Then in 2017, French said the pain became unbearable and went to a surgeon to administer steroid injections into her knee to alleviate the pain.
