Trivia Night: DT and His Appendicitis Scar

...so when DID that happen, anyway?

I think I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I’ve often come across quite a few personal tidbits about a young DT during my decade-long research into DT’s career as well as my glacially sloooowly developing companion podcast. I think I’ve also mentioned these tidbits aren’t going to be featured often at all - in fact, they’ll be featured very rarely - both here and in the podcast? Well, if I haven’t mentioned it before, I’m mentioning it now.

You might be wondering why. The simple answer is that I see no reason to include these sorts of things because this blog and any future podcast episodes are about David’s professional life, and not his past, present or future personal life. I draw a pretty hard line between the two.

That said, I’ll admit I do have a caveat to this line.

I’ve done a lot of thorough research on the time period which, in my head, I’ve always labeled David’s “Scottish Theatre Years”. These encompass a wide range of the theatre productions he performed in between the time he entered the RSAMD Junior School at age 11 and prior to his move to London in 1994 - with a particular concentration on his drama school years (1988-1991).

Thing is, though, most of the plays in this time period are not technically considered professional productions because they weren’t featuring professional paid actors; ergo, technically they aren’t really a part of his professional life. That’s because until he got his Equity card and took his first job in the 7:84 in 1991 for The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, he hadn’t been earning a wage as a jobbing actor. And David himself has consistently said in interviews that Arturo was his first professional gig.

Here’s where my caveat comes in. I’m choosing to split hairs here. For the purposes of this blog and future podcast episodes, I plan to treat his drama school years as if they were part of his professional career. Firstly, many of the productions he acted in during this stage of his life did charge the public a ticket price, even if they didn’t pay their actors! And secondly, I want to give these student productions the same consideration and respect as the rest of his career…and feature them as the seminal experiences they were. They helped build the foundation of his professional life. Besides, he himself has said that attending drama school was essential for him to become the actor he wanted to be.

Because I consider them professional experiences (and because I’m acutely aware of his desire for privacy) this blog and any future podcast episodes will stay as much in the professional arena as I can possibly make it. Anything of a more personal nature which gets included in the blog/future podcast will have been measured against all of these factors before it gets added in.

Also - David’s talked a lot about this period of his life over the years. Because he has, in general I won’t feel uncomfortable highlighting anything he’s mentioned which happens to coincide with new information I’ve discovered. And today’s interesting bit of information? It meets this criteria easily! David’s definitely talked and shared about this before…but it doesn’t really have a place in his stage work. So let’s talk about it!

The lovely mizgnomer on Tumblr did a great little post a few years back which featured a photo set of David at Wizard World Des Moines in June 2018, chatting about the near-death experience with appendicitis he had when he was a child:

David’s mentioned his appendix scar a few other times as well. Each time he speaks about it, the range of his age at the time of the attack varies by a few years - usually from age 8 to about 10. That’s not surprising at all, of course, because for most of us (especially the older we get!) trying to narrow down some of the events in our childhood to specific time ranges can get a bit fuzzy.

But I can help him out. I’m pretty sure I know exactly when it happened!

Back in 1980, a society/organizational newspaper column entitled “Church News” appeared regularly in the Paisley Daily Express. This column often featured prominent figures in churches all over the community and were often framed as “One Week in the Working Life Of” these certain figures to debunk the myth that ministers only work on Sundays. One of these columns, published on 1 May 1980, featured a certain Rev. Sandy McDonald, the minister of St. Marks Oldhall.

from the 1 May 1980 edition of the Paisley Daily Express

That week, Sandy was busy recording a series of short services at his church which would later go out on STV. These were likely part of one of two religious television broadcasts he was a part of at the time: Late Call or That’s The Spirit (both programs David has mentioned over the years).

The article goes on to document Sandy’s busy week, speaking about his duties chairing festivals of praise and being principal speaker at church rallies and charity events. In between these duties, the article mentions, Sandy has to attend to all his pastoral duties, including meetings with his own church groups, and - and here is the important part -

“visits to hospital patients (including his own son).”

The time at which this article was written implies one of Sandy’s children was in the hospital in late April to early May of 1980. It’s probably a safe bet to assume it was David: while it could have been either his elder brother or sister, this does happen to fall pretty splendidly into the age range of “8 to 10” David’s spit-balled for the time of his appendicitis scare. David would have just turned nine years old in mid-April of that year.

So there you have it. David was nine years old when he suffered the bout of appendicitis - which burst, and brought him near death.

Thank goodness he made it!