David Walliams comes down with 'Thames tummy'

David Walliams comes down with 'Thames tummy'
David Walliams comes down with 'Thames tummy' (Image credit: PA)

David Walliams is falling behind schedule in his charity river swim after coming down with 'Thames tummy'. The comedian has been ill with a high temperature, vomiting and diarrhoea, but has still managed to raise more than £200,000 for Sport Relief three days into his challenge. He said: "I always knew there was a risk that taking in the water could cause problems, but now it's happened it's still hit me really hard. I was sweating in the night and have been to the toilet a lot this morning. "When I heard the total raised had jumped to more than £200,000 it gave me a real boost, as do the thousands of people who have been turning out and cheering. There were so many last night I thought Take That! were in a boat behind me. "This is already much harder than I thought it would be, but this Thames tummy I've got is making the task seem incredibly difficult and London seems a long way away." The Little Britain star, 40, is swimming 140 miles over eight days from Gloucestershire to London. The BT Sport Relief Challenge: Walliams vs The Thames is being filmed for a documentary to be broadcast in the build-up to the Sport Relief weekend in March next year. The star is no stranger to getting wet for a good cause - in 2006 he swam the Channel, raising £1 million in aid of Sport Relief. He has also swum the Straits of Gibraltar and last year cycled from John O'Groats to Lands End, also for Sport Relief. David is asking for people to sponsor him at www.sportrelief.com/walliams and he hopes people will come to the riverside and cheer him on.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.