BROADCASTER Clive James has admitted he is "getting near the end" after several years of serious illness.
The Australian star, best known for his hit show Clive James On Television, was diagnosed with leukaemia, kidney failure and lung disease in 2010. He told Radio 4's Meeting Myself Coming Back: "I'm getting near the end. I don't want to cast a gloom, an air of doom, over the programme but I'm a man who is approaching his terminus."
In the show, to be broadcast tomorrow, James, 72, said he has "been really ill for two-and-a-half years" and "almost died four times in that period".
James was born in Sydney and came to England in 1961, where he made a career in journalism including a successful stint as a prominent literary critic and then television columnist for The Observer.
Clive James On Television ran for years and his wry commentary on prog-rammes such as Japanese gameshow Endurance made him a household name.
The father of two, who is married to academic Prue Shaw, said he was facing the fact he might never see Sydney again.
He said: "I've been so sick since January 2010, especially my lung disease, that I'm not allowed to fly. You couldn't get enough oxygen aboard a plane for me to get me to Sydney."
James also spoke about the "defining event" of his life – the death of his father, who survived a Second World War prison camp only to die on the journey back to Australia. He said: "I never saw him. I think I was in his arms as a baby for one day before he sailed away."
The TV presenter's illness was made public last year when he wrote a letter to The Australian Literary Review revealing he had cancer and was being treated at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.
At the time he said: "In January 2010 in Cambridge, I got hauled in for kidney failure. I was immediately diagnosed for everything else as well, including several lung diseases and a version of leukaemia that is supposed to develop slowly but in my case couldn't wait to get started."
In 2011, his wife said he was suffering from chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, a common form of the disease in which patients build up abnormal white blood cells.
Last night James's spokeswoman released a statement saying he was in reasonable shape and looking forward to years of working.
The statement said: "On air, the interview which Clive James gave to the BBC sounds much less doom-laden than it does when transcribed. Clive is in fact in reasonable shape and is looking forward to years of working, writing his books and his column."
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