Actor Timothy Spall has told how his wife helped him beat cancer.

The star was told that he had leukaemia on the day he was meant to fly to Cannes, with his wife Shane, in 1996, to celebrate Secrets & Lies winning the film festival’s Palme d’Or.

Spall, 57, who plays JMW Turner in the new Mike Leigh film about the British painter, told Radio Times magazine how his wife helped him.

“I thought I’d be on the red carpet, not lying in hospital!,” he said of missing the festival.

The father-of-three added: “You never know what is going to happen to you in life. I’m lucky because I have Shane. She’s my Rock of Gibraltar.

“We were always a very close family, but particularly when I was ill and she stood sentinel. We were in it together. I do believe in the power of love.”

Spall is being tipped to get an Oscar nomination and has won the best actor award at Cannes for his role in Mr Turner.