COMEDIAN Ted Robbins feared he would lose his career after a serious house fire left him unable to speak for three months.

The TV funny-man was caught up in the fire which broke out in his Crawshawbooth home in April.

Speaking to the Lancashire Telegraph at the time, the former Phoenix Nights star: “I was ready to go to the gym and an acrid smell starting coming through the house. I went outside to see if anyone nearby was burning something, but couldn’t see anything.

“The smell was getting stronger so I started to check all of the appliances in the house to see if anything was wrong.

“Within minutes smoke was billowing out of the dryer and I knew that I had to get out. It didn’t matter about the things that were downstairs, the most important thing was to get out of the house safely.”

Following the incident, Mr Robbins, who had a heart attack on stage in 2015 at the opening night of Phoenix Nights, lost his voice for three months, and feared he would never get it back, a tragedy that would put an end to his career in TV and Radio.

His wife, Judy Robbins said: “We’ve had a pretty bad year really.

“In April we had the fire at the house and after that Ted started to lose his voice.

“We thought it was a cold or flu at first but it lasted three months.

“He couldn’t work and had to cancel a lot of jobs.

“He started to think that he might not get his voice back and it could be the end of his career.”

Luckily, it turned out to be a paralysed vocal chord and Mr Robbins was able to have a procedure on the NHS, and now has his voice back and is fighting fit again.

And to celebrate, he’s putting on a special gig at St Mary’s Chambers, Rawtenstall on Friday.

Mrs Robbins continued: “Our brilliant NHS operated and he’s now got a voice.

“He’s doing the show on Friday to celebrate.

“Over the last few months he’d had all these different jobs lined up and couldn’t do any of them.

“He even worked with John Humphrys on Mastermind, looking after the audience, and was all set to do that but had to pull out.

“So he’s more than ready for a few laughs now.”

His daughter, Molly, who appears on C4's Extreme Cake Makers, will be in attendance to cheer him on.

Molly lost her business in the fire, which was caused by a faulty tumble drier, and Mr Robbins said they’d struggled to get their heads around what had happened.

He said: “The machine wasn’t on. It had been earlier in the day but Judy had switched it off and left the door open before she left the house.”

Ted will also be joined on stage by sister Kate Robbins, mother of Inbetweeners and Celebrity Jungle star, Emily Atack.

Mrs Robbins added: “Kate is a performer as well, the whole family is, so it’s going to be a great show.

“Ted's looking forward to seeing old friends and new.”

For tickets and more information visit stmaryslive.com