Former EastEnder Todd collapses on stage

Actor Todd Carty - best known for playing Mark Fowler in EastEnders - is recovering in hospital after collapsing on stage in Stevenage.

The 44-year-old was in the middle of a performance of the thriller The Business Of Murder on Saturday afternoon when he was taken ill.

Early reports suggested he has suffered a heart attack, although his agent Derek Webster later told the BBC News website that it was unclear what had triggered the collapse.

"It might have had something to do with an ear infection that Todd has been suffering from for a few days now," Webster said, "I can't actually confirm that."

He added that Todd had been "violently sick" on stage before the performance was brought to a premature end - but was on the mend.

"He's undergoing tests, there's not much more that we can say, other than that he's well, he's awake and he's conscious and his wife is with him."

A member of the audience told the News Of The World, "He suddenly slipped onto the sofa, coughed twice and then his head just fell to one side. Tt was very shocking."

Todd, who appeared in EastEnders from 1988 - 2002, is also well known for playing 'Tucker' Jenkins in the early years of Grange Hill, and for starring as evil PC Gabriel Kent in the Bill. He left the show in 2005.