Health scare for Craig Charles during BBC Radio 6 Music show

Craig Charles was rushed to hospital after becoming unwell during his BBC Radio 6 Music show earlier this week.

During his programme on Wednesday, he experienced tingling fingers and a pain in his head.

“My hands couldn’t grip the pen and my fingers were tingling,” he said. “I had a pain in the right side of me shoulder going up my neck and into the back of my head,” he added.

Craig’s production team urged him to go to hospital straight away but he decided to finish the show. He was met by his wife Jackie afterwards and she drove from the BBC headquarters in Salford to Wythenshawe Hospital.

“They gave me an instant ECG to make sure that my heart was fine and all that, and said ‘go and wait in the waiting room and we’ll call your name’,” he said. “So I go and wait in the waiting room, this was at half past four, and they called my name at around a quarter to 10 at night.

“Now this is no disrespect or no criticism of Wythenshawe Hospital, they were brilliant, they were professional, they were caring, they were dedicated.”

He had a CT scan which showed there was nothing wrong with his brain and was told he should also have an MRI scan, which would mean an overnight stay, but the hospital didn’t have any spare beds.

“So we spent the night in the A&E in the triage department, with the blue curtain pulled around us, me and Jackie on this little single hospital trolley,” Craig said.

“We got about an hour’s kip until some guy came in screaming because he’d dislocated his shoulder.

“And we woke up like that and were up ever since. We got out the hospital just as Chris [Hawkins] was wrapping up my show yesterday, so nearly 24 hours in hospital and they still don’t know what’s wrong with me.

“But at least I know I’m not dying yet,” he joked.