Dawn French says doctors thought she had a brain tumour after skull felt like it was ‘collapsing inwards’

‘It was like being on a buffeting boat or something,’ comedian explained

Dawn French has revealed that doctors worried she had a brain tumour after vertigo made her feel like her head was “collapsing inwards”.

The comedian was diagnosed with vertigo in 2014 and had to take a walking stick on stage during her 30 Million Minutes tour, due to a fear of falling over.

Appearing on Michelle Visage’s Rule Breakers podcast, French said that she hadn’t been able to understand “what is up and what is down” while on stage.

“It is like my skull is a room and the whole of the top is collapsing inwards, and everything starts spinning,” she said. “It’s like being very drunk and not understanding what is up and what is down.”

The comedian continued: “For a while they thought I might have a brain tumour… It was like being on a buffeting boat or something. It was awful, absolutely awful.”

The Vicar of Dibley star was eventually told by a doctor that her condition was being triggered by the bright lighting on stage, which left her unable to see anything but darkness in the audience and gave her nothing to “latch” onto.

She was prescribed Beta blockers to calm her fear of falling over.

In a recent interview, French admitted that she didn’t initially like her long-time comedy partner Jennifer Saunders because she was “posh”.

“As soon as I got rid of my prejudice about her, which I still have to this day – prejudice against posh people, they have to prove their worth to me – I thought, ‘She’s actually great,’” she explained.