Cake or Death's Groovy News

[from The Press Association]

Eddie Izzard has revealed he has become such a master of walking on one leg he can almost run.

The actor and comedian – who in 2009 completed 43 marathons in 51 days for Sport Relief – stars as Long John Silver in a new adaptation of Treasure Island to air on Sky1 at Christmas and had to train to play the one-legged pirate.

Eddie revealed: “The whole one leg thing, that was tricky, because you know if you have one leg now you have two handles and two crutches, so you can get around.

“This is one stick and no handle, getting that right was really hard. I can go forwards and backwards on it.

“I can even do a fast walky-run for the chase scenes. And yes, I have kept the crutch.”

The 49-year-old stand-up enjoys a challenge after perfecting his French to perform 71 gigs in France.

Next year he plans to do stand-up in Berlin, Moscow, Cairo and Madrid, all in their respective mother-tongues.

He admitted: “Those will all be pinnacles to climb. My Spanish is – there’s not much there, but I could probably get it.

“Russian will be tough, Arabic will be tough, German I did two years ago so I can.”