70? It’s the new 40! I feel better than ever
BUBBLY Christopher Biggins is not the man he used to be but that’s no bad thing.
The big star has lost more than a stone, through exercise and diet, after being told he has type 2 diabetes.
And as he approaches a landmark birthday he is feeling amazing.
He said: “Seventy is the new 40. I walk 5-6 kilometres a day. I’m not scared of death.
“Exercising is the great secret. I feel better than ever.”
This bodes well for fans of the evergreen panto favourite, who this season is Widow Twankey in Aladdin in Bradford.
Biggins reaches the big 7-0 next Sunday and was in a reflective mood about his life, his loves and his pals.
The comedian, who starred as Lukewarm opposite Ronnie Barker in Porridge, has rubbed shoulders with some of the world’s top stars.
He was a great friend of the late singer and TV host Cilla Black. He has also been a close pal with actress Dame Joan Collins for 30 years.
Heaven
He modestly told the Sunday People: “I know all these amazing people out of sheer luck. I’ve been at the right place at the right time.”
Biggins reckoned he has Dynasty star Joan, 85, to thank for his most glittering encounter.
The pair became firm friends after sitting next to each other at a cabaret. Joan gave him the chance to mingle with showbiz royalty at comic George Burns’s 97th birthday party.
He said: “Joan is very free with her friends and loves introducing you to them unlike some people in showbusiness who want to keep people in compartments.”
She asked him to Burns’s Hollywood bash where 120 people were sitting on ten tables.
Each table had a big star on it. Biggins was sitting with singing legend Frank Sinatra. But star-struck Biggins recalled being slightly worried when Sinatra, with a knowing look on his face, asked him to go with him into the corridor.
He said: “I thought oh my God, what’s going to happen now?
“But in fact he wanted a cigarette and his wife didn’t like him smoking so I had to stand guard.
“I called him ‘Mr Sinatra’ and he turned to me and said, ‘Christopher, call me Frank.’
I just thought, ‘Right, ‘I can die now and go to heaven.’”
Biggins, who won 2007’s I’m A Celebrity, also became friends with Joan’s writer sister Jackie, who died of breast cancer in 2015, aged 77.
He said: “Last time she came over I knew something was wrong as she’d lost a lot of weight. She told no one she had cancer – not even Joan.”
But it was another loss in 2015 which still haunts the entertainer.
Cilla Black’s death from a head injury aged 72 shocked the nation and devastated Biggins.
“I still miss her,” he said with a sad smile. “If I hear something I know she will like, I still
go to pick up the phone to call her. We were so close.” Many of his most treasured memories are of wild nights spent with beloved TV presenter Cilla.
Affair
He said: “We had incredible times. One time when we were doing Surprise Surprise I said to her backstage, ‘By the way have you ever had an affair?’ and as I said that my name was called so I ran on stage.
“When they called her on she ran on to see me and ignored the audience and said, ‘No I haven’t’ in front of everyone.
Another time we were out in Oxford with our husbands and they got very drunk and ended up in the gutter so we left them there. We were utterly appalled.”
The death of pals, including Supermarket Sweep’s Dale Winton in April, has made Biggins think about his health.
Six years ago he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and feared he was heading for a heart attack.
He said: “I was low when I was told I had the condition. Things weren’t good and I was frightened.
“I didn’t know how dangerous it could be. It was scary.”
But he has overhauled his diet and fitness great. He said: “I’v to look after your b up sugar complete
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