“A year before I get back on stage,” Sir Ian McKellen tells Simon Mayo

Stage and screen star Sir Ian McKellen joined Simon Mayo on his Greatest Hits Radio Drivetime show on Wednesday to talk about his new film, The Critic.

The actor also shared with Simon how he’s still recovering from the fall he had from the stage of London’s Noel Coward Theatre earlier this year and the time frame he’s given himself before returning to the world of theatre.

He told Simon: ‘What I’ve been left with is not so much a physical injury, but a mental disturbance because I thought it was much more serious at the time that it was.”

Sir Ian revealed that he believed he was going to die because he thought he’d broken his neck.

Continuing, he said: “I’d forgotten but apparently, I’d said, ‘I’ve broken my neck, I am dying’ and if I said it, I must have thought that I was. And I’ve just got to deal with that. I’m not dying, not just yet and I hope I’ll get back to acting again on stage.”

When asked by Simon when he would know if the time was right Sir Ian replied: “That’s a good point – I think I’ll know because the contract says I have to turn up at a particular time! I’m not proposing to work on stage for another year and I think by then this will all be alright.”

With stage roles off limits for the next twelve months Simon asked about recent rumours that Sir Ian is set to reprise his iconic role as Gandalf in Lord of the Rings.

Sir Ian replied: “One can’t be indifferent to the possibility that I might be able to go back and play a part that I thought I’d finished with nearly 25 years ago.

“There are apparently going to be two films that might involve Gandalf in some way, but until I’ve read a script, I don’t know whether it’s something I’d want to do – but I do feel rather proprietal towards him.”