WESTCOUNTRY doctors treating comedian and actor Rik Mayall for serious head injuries suffered in a quad-bike crash said yesterday they were "happy with his progress" in a Plymouth hospital.
And the 39-year-old comedian's wife Barbara said on the third day of her bedside vigil: "We think he is okay."
She said through a spokeswoman at Derriford Hospital that she was "more optimistic" about her husband's condition.
The TV star is still under sedation and in a stable condition in intensive care at the hospital's specialist neurological ward.
He was flown unconscious to the hospital by police helicopter after the accident at the family's country retreat in South Devon on Thursday evening.
A hospital spokeswoman said Mr Mayall's condition was "looking more hopeful" adding that he had spent "a comfortable night".
"He is almost through the critical initial 72 hours period of waiting for the brain to stop swelling," she said.
The family have still not released any specific details of Mr Mayall's injuries or treatment.
Two of Mr Mayall's Comic Strip comedy team partners, Peter Richardson and Adrian Edmondson, visited him in the hospital, said the spokeswoman.
Fans of the comedian telephoned - one calling from Australia yesterday - with good wishes which have been passed to the family. Several bouquets were also delivered to the hospital.
The accident happened when the star was using the four-wheeled machine at Pasture Farm, near east Allington in the South Hams.
His country home is a large stone and whitewashed farmhouse set in its own valley well off the road.
It is understood that the quad bike toppled on top of Mr Mayall as he rode across a steeply sloping field.
His wife went out to see why the engine had stopped and discovered him trapped underneath and unconscious.
The ambulance service called in Devon and Cornwall police helicopter to fly him to Derriford Hospital.
Mr Mayall bought the country estate last year as a retreat for his family - his wife of 12 years and their three young children, Rosie, 11, Sidney, nine, and Bonnie, two.
He received his first TV break appearing as comic Brummie Kevin Turvey on A Kick Up The Eighties, but shot to fame in The Young Ones.
He also starred in The Comic Strip Presents, Bottom and the New Statesman.
Mr Mayall last night appeared with other Comic Strip stars in a Channel 4 comedy special Four Men in a Car, which went ahead after the programme makers consulted his family.