The Good Life star, 79, was diagnosed with the chronic lung condition five years ago, and he has blamed his lifelong smoking habit for his ill health.

He tells Britain's Daily Mail newspaper, "I've got emphysema, you see, so I'm b**gered. I haven't even got the strength to garden any more. Five hundred thousand cigarettes, darling - that's the trouble.

"It's totally my fault. So, I get very breathless, which is a pain in the backside. Trying to get upstairs, oh God, it's ridiculous. Of course, when you're b**ody nearly 80 it's depressing because you've had it anyway.

"The ciggies (cigarettes) got me. I stopped 10 years ago, but too late. If you do it in your 30s, you're OK, but after 30 it gets you. I was diagnosed five years ago and didn't think it would go quite as badly as it has. It's a b**ger, but there it is. I used to love smoking."