ALAN DAVIES 'I SURVIVED ABUSE & CANCER'

The British comedian opens up as he returns to tour Australia

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A staple of the stage and screen for decades, Alan Davies, is known to millions for his performance as the eponymous hero in the hugely popular, long-running TV series Jonathan Creek and as a permanent panellist on QI. But behind the red carpets, fame and fanfare, the comedian was holding on to a gut-wrenching secret: the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of his own father.

“There was a time when I was younger when I thought that the past could be behind you,” he tells Woman’s Day exclusively. “And that you could just motor forward to the future and leave things behind. You hear people say things like, ‘I've closed that chapter,’ or, ‘I've shut the door on that and I’ve moved on.’ But eventually, you're going to have to reckon with them or they're going to damage you. So I think it’s been beneficial.”

In his fiercely honest 2020 memoir,