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How a stage-fight nearly ended my acting career

Conor Madden faced a difficult road back to acting when he suffered brain damage after an accident on stage – a fight scene went wrong and he was stabbed in the head with a sword.

Conor Madden was playing Hamlet in Cork at the age of 24, the best role of his young career, when an on-stage accident changed his life forever. During a fight scene a sword fractured Conor’s skull. He was eventually diagnosed with a brain injury. Conor recovered, but there have been lasting effects on his speech and mobility, and the road back to acting has been difficult. He spoke to Andile Masuku about his experience. Conor is appearing in theatre production ‘Flights’ until the 29th of February at the Omnibus Theatre, London.

Ernie Louttit was a rare thing in the 1980s - a police officer and Cree, one of Canada's many First Nations groups. He also had a reputation for re-opening case files on First Nations people that his colleagues had closed. When Ernie discovered that a case of a First Nations teenager, who had been found frozen to death, had been concluded without much investigation he knew he had to do more. He tells Neal Razzell about the aftershocks for his own career and for policing in Canada.

Photo: Conor Madden

Available now

53 minutes

Last on

Thu 13 Feb 2020 04:06GMT

Broadcasts

  • Wed 12 Feb 2020 12:06GMT
  • Wed 12 Feb 2020 16:06GMT
  • Wed 12 Feb 2020 18:06GMT
  • Wed 12 Feb 2020 21:06GMT
  • Wed 12 Feb 2020 23:06GMT
  • Thu 13 Feb 2020 03:06GMT
  • Thu 13 Feb 2020 04:06GMT

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Podcast: Lives Less Ordinary

Podcast: Lives Less Ordinary

Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected