How Peter Davison survived a health scare down on the Sugar Free Farm

Another batch of celebs have a go at giving up the sweet stuff

You don’t expect to find yourself leaving a health retreat in an ambulance, but that’s exactly what happened to Peter Davison in the new run of ITV’s Sugar Free Farm! We caught up with him to find out what happened…

How did you end up in the back of an ambulance, Peter?

“I got very dizzy. It’s this condition called labyrinthitis. Something happens in your inner ear, and you just can’t stand up. It’s like being incredibly drunk. The room spins and it’s really unpleasant.”

Have you always had a sweet tooth?

“My parents ran a sweet shop. We had mice because of all the sweets, and they would nibble the ends of bars of chocolate, which then couldn’t be sold. So my father would say: “If you cut off the ends, you can eat them!”

Would you appear on a reality show like I’m a Celebrity…?

“Definitely not. You’re just being entertained by seeing people being humiliated, and the fact that they’ve agreed to be humiliated doesn’t make it any better. I don’t see the entertainment value of sticking your head inside a glass box full of cockroaches.”

As an ex-Time Lord, do you keep up with Doctor Who?

“I certainly did watch it when my son-in-law David Tennant was the Doctor – but mainly because my children were of the age when they liked Doctor Who, and indeed they still are. I have watched them all except for Peter Capaldi’s most recent series, because I was working in the theatre. It may be age, but I find it quite difficult to follow now!’ he adds. ‘I turn to my children and say: ‘What’s going on?’ But it’s still a great programme.”

You played a vet in All Creatures Great and Small. Did any of the skills come in handy down on the Sugar Free Farm?

“I felt quite at home, I must admit. I can move a herd of cows from one side of a field to the other and, rightly or wrongly, I felt quite adept at doing the various jobs on the farm – although I couldn’t diagnose what is wrong with a sick animal in a million years!”

Sugar Free Farm starts on Tuesday 10 January at 9pm on ITV.

Ian writes about TV and film for TV Times, What’s on TV and TV & Satellite Week magazines. He co-hosts the weekly TV streaming podcast, Bingewatch.