Actor, author and all-round polymath Stephen Fry has today announced that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

The 60-year-old tweeted a 12 minute video, with the caption: "For the last 2 months I’ve been in the throes of a rather unwelcome and unexpected adventure. I’m sorry I haven’t felt able to talk about it till now, but here I am explaining what has been going on".

The condition came to light after Mr Fry had a flu jab and routine health check. Last month he underwent a surgical procedure to remove his prostate as well as a number of lymph nodes.

While his public persona is thoroughly English, Mr Fry’s ancestry is Hungarian Jewish. He was featured in an episode of  the BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? where he discovered that several of his ancestors were killed by the Nazis.