THE comedian Rik Mayall was still unconscious in Derriford hospital, Plymouth, yesterday after suffering serious head injuries when his four-wheel "quad-bike" overturned near his home, writes John Harlow.
Mayall, 39, was trapped underneath the machine, which he had been riding across a field on Thursday evening at his eight-acre country retreat, Pasture Farm, near East Allington, south Devon.
His wife Barbara realised there had been an accident after she heard the engine cut out. She called Westcountry Ambulance Service, which requested the Devon and Cornwall police helicopter to fly the comedian to Derriford, where the area's specialist neurological ward is sited.
Mayall rose to fame in television shows such as The Comic Strip Presents, The Young Ones and the political satire The New Statesman.
In spite of the accident, his family last night approved this evening's screening of the latest Comic Strip spoof, Four Men In a Car, in which Mayall plays a salesman.