TV Ross: Terrifying moment I blacked out on wreck dive
Star’s brush with death in sea shoot
ROSS Kemp has told of how he survived a terrifying blackout while scuba diving for his new TV series and lay on his hotel bed that night thinking: “That was f***ing close.”
The ex-EastEnders actor, 58, was 32m down exploring a shipwreck and trying to pull up a bit of pipe when a build-up of C02 in his mask made him at first disorientated, then momentarily unconscious.
He said: “I thought removing the pipes was like trying to rock a tree stump out of my back garden.
LUNGS
“But the amount of C02 which was seeping into my system was basically clouding my judgement, and I forgot completely that I was actually not in my back yard – I was in the middle of Plymouth Sound. It was a little bit of a spark and then I just blacked out. Literally, the blackout was for half a second.
“But that was enough for my lungs to feel as if they were on fire. You don’t realise that until you get out on to a boat.
“Then you realise your lungs are lit up like a Christmas tree.”
In his new series Ross Kemp: Deep Sea Treasure Hunter, which starts on Sky History on Monday, the star explores our nation’s past by delving into shipwrecks – including one of the most famous, Henry VIII’s flagship the Mary Rose.
Ross said: “Diving may appear very easy but it isn’t. It’s extremely technical. If it goes wrong, it can go seriously wrong.”
The danger he had been in from his blackout did not hit him until he was back at his hotel.
He said: “I was still a bit strange when I went back and lay on the bed in the hotel. I made sure I didn’t fall asleep for five hours. I was just looking at the ceiling of the Novotel thinking, ‘That was f***ing close’.”
Ross also dived on SS Thistlegorm, sunk by German aircraft in the Red Sea in 1941 while carrying armoured vehicles. And it was a moving experience as his grandad transported tanks by sea and drove them in North Africa in the Second World War.
He said: “To see the type of vehicle he would have driven... I said, ‘This is like shaking hands with ghosts’.”
Ross Kemp: Deep Sea Treasure Hunter, Monday, 9pm, Sky History.
Diving may appear easy but it isn’t... it can go seriously wrong
ROSS KEMP DEEP SEA TREASURE HUNTER HOST