Stephen Fry has said he sometimes thought of his chronic pain “as a friend” as he tried to manage his condition after an accident.
The actor was injured in a 6ft (1.8m) fall from a stage at London’s O2 Arena last year, which left him needing constant physiotherapy.
He told Radio 4’s Today programme that living with chronic pain “makes you afraid of basic movements”.
The 67-year-old said: “You almost call it a friend and say ‘It’s OK, I know why you’re there’ and you’re not a failure on the part of evolution, or God, or whatever you want to call nature.”
Fry, who shot to fame in the 1980s as one half of the Fry and Laurie double act, was talking with Prof Irene Tracey, the vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, during her guest editorship of the Radio 4 show.
As a neuroscientist, Prof Tracey focused her programme on the understanding and treatment of pain, a subject she has devoted her career to.
Fry told her: “Are we wrong to believe that it’s rather British to think that pain is something that should be endured?” he asked.
He said people sometimes believe that “we should suffer if we have this injury, that it is the natural course”.
During the two-hour special Prof Tracey also spoke with former Olympic champion Mo Farah about how he dealt with pain.
Prof Tracey said: “Pain is subjective, it’s a private experience that you can’t really objectify, it’s an oddity in its own self.”
She also discussed work taking place both in Oxford and further afield to investigate chronic pain.
University of OxfordThe special programme also had a message from the Pope, who delivered the Thought for the Day for the second time.
The 88-year-old spoke of creating “a world full of hope and kindness” in a message that was recorded in Italian and translated to English by an actor.
Prof Tracey is one of six people who will guest edit the programme between Christmas and the new year.
Others guest editors over the festive period include presenter and author Baroness Floella Benjamin, British cyclist Dame Laura Kenny and former chancellor Sir Sajid Javid.
