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Timothy Spall weight loss: Inside The Sixth Commandment actor's health transformation
25 July 2023, 14:19
Timothy Spall's weight loss has left viewers of The Sixth Commandment asking how the actor shed the pounds.
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Timothy Spall, 66, is currently starring in hit BBC drama The Sixth Commandment, a series about the Buckinghamshire murderer Ben Field.
And while the writing and acting performances from Timothy and the rest of the cast have kept viewers hooked, people have also been left shocked by the actor's impressive weight loss.
While it is unknown how much weight Timothy has lost altogether, the Enchanted, The Pale Blue Eye and Harry Potter actor has opened up about his weight loss in the past.
The star, who is father to Hot Fuzz, Jurassic World and The Ritual actor Ralph Spall, has previously explained his motives to lose weight were driven by the desire to become healthier.
Speaking to Radio Times, Timothy said: "I wanted to change my lifestyle and lose weight and it’s done what I’d always hoped it might.
“As a character actor, it’s put me in a position where I’m not hobbled by being a certain shape. I’m no longer that avuncular round bloke. It does feel liberating on many levels.”
He went on to add, however, that it was a "risk" to lose weight as it could have meant acting roles dried up. Thankfully, they did not.
Timothy has previous said that the key to his weight loss was simply eating less and drinking less booze.
Appearing on ITV's Lorraine, he said: “If I was going to write a diet book, it would be two pages. The first one is, food and booze is lovely and exercise is horrible.
“Right, turn over the page. If you eat too much and drink too much, you put on weight. If you eat about the right amount, you don’t. And that’s it really.”
Timothy has previously found himself in bad health; 27 years ago he was diagnosed with Leukaemia and told by doctors he had only three days to live.
This happened in 1996, the actor was 39-years-old, when he went to the doctors about persistent tiredness and mysterious bruises appearing on his body.
Talking about the ordeal, Timothy said on The Graham Norton Show: “I was diagnosed with Leukaemia the day I was supposed to go to Cannes and when I saw everyone coming down the red carpet I was having my first chemo stuck directly to my heart when I was watching this all going on.
“It was nice because they were winning prizes while I was sort of doing an impersonation of not trying to peg it which I valiantly managed to achieve.”
Reflecting on this time, he went on: “When you’re in a state of not knowing whether you’re going to live or die or not, you’re in a state of profundity. So I remember going out to the park in between treatments and looking at a tree and for the first time really thinking what an amazing thing it was.
“And for about 10 minutes I thought that is a really nice tree. And then after a while I did it again and after a while I thought, ‘you know, this profundity thing is a bit over-rated’.”
He continued: "So when I got better and started being petty and snapping at the people I loved and shouting at people in traffic jams and being ridiculous, funny and scatological, I knew I was getting better.
“Because when you’re dying you tend to be profound. So never fear being a petty fool. It means you ain’t dying.”
Thankfully, after receiving chemotherapy treatment, Timothy was given the all-clear and moved into remission.
