Actor Philip Martin Brown’s career has spanned five decades, including roles in The Bill and Midsomer Murders. But he’s best known as Grantly Budgen, the grumpy teacher in BBC1’s Waterloo Road. Here, dad-of-two Philip, 58, who lives in Kent, tells the Mirror’s Richard Webber how epilepsy nearly ruined his career.
I was walking down the road one lunchtime when I suffered my first epileptic seizure. I was 19 and studying to be a teacher alongside drama training at London’s New College of Speech and Drama and as I was strolling along with friends I started feeling and acting strange, walking around in circles.
It scared me to death because I didn’t know what was happening. Not so much was known about epilepsy in the 70s. Thankfully, we’d moved on since medieval times when it was believed to be some sort of possession by the devil!
