British TV star Sandi Toksvig cancels New Zealand tour due to serious illness

Great British Bake Off and QI host Sandi Toksvig has been forced to cancel her tour due to illness. Photo / Getty Images

A beloved British television host is seriously ill in an Australian hospital and has cancelled her entire tour including her New Zealand shows after becoming infected with bronchial pneumonia.

Comedian Sandi Toksvig, 64, has been a stalwart of British television and radio for decades and presented the hugely popular Great British Bake off between 2017 and 2020. She is also regularly on Australian television.

She had been touring Australia and New Zealand when she fell ill with the respiratory illness.

Pneumonia inflames the air sacs in the lungs which may then become filled with fluid.

It can be serious for people over 65 and even life threatening for those with health problems or weakened immune systems.

The 64 year old Danish-British dual citizen took to the stage at Sydney’s State Theatre on Monday and had been due to perform in Christchurch on Sunday.

“Due to illness, Sandi has cancelled the New Zealand leg of her tour,” said a statement from “Team Toksvig” to her 344,000 Twitter followers on Saturday afternoon.

Due to illness, Sandi has cancelled the New Zealand leg of her tour. She has been admitted to hospital with bronchial pneumonia while still in Australia and is unable to travel & perform. Our main priority is getting her home to the UK as soon as she is well enough - Team Toksvig

— Sandi Toksvig (@sanditoksvig) December 3, 2022

“She has been admitted to hospital with bronchial pneumonia while still in Australia and is unable to travel and perform.

“Our main priority is getting her home to the UK as soon as she is well enough”.

One of those who replied to the tweet said Toksvig had told the audience at her Sydney event that “she wasn’t 100 per cent”.

“But you wouldn’t have known it,” the audience member added.

Many wished her a speedy recovery including Australian-British human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell and the BBC’s senior war correspondent Lyse Doucet.

Toksvig’s career began when she studied at Cambridge University where she met other comedians including Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie.

She has been a familiar voice on British radio chiefly as a guest and presenter on popular BBC Radio 4 quiz shows such as Sorry I Haven’t a Clue.

Toksvig has also written more than 20 books including drama and non-fiction novels.

In 2014, she began presenting quiz shows on British television including Fifteen-to-One and QI. The irreverent BBC quiz QI has been a regular staple on ABC TV.

In 2017 she started a three-year stint on Bake Off presenting with Noel Fielding, Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith.

Toksvig married her partner Debbie in 2014 who she has been with for more than 15 years. She has three children, Jesse, Morgan and Theo.