Puttnam speaks of battle with ME

Puttnam, producer of Oscar-winning films including Chariots Of Fire and The Killing Fields, suffers up to eight attacks every year.

“I had a six-month period when I couldn’t do anything,” he told The Guardian. “Nothing, really nothing.

“Going to the loo was like climbing Everest. It is impossible to explain to people how utterly debilitating it is.”

Besides the physical symptoms, the attacks are accompanied by deep depression.

“You become irrationally gloomy and everything becomes negative,” he said.

“Sometimes it’s not such a terrible thing, but I suddenly see all the dangers of a situation or all the problems.

“After all these years, I know it won’t last more than a couple of days. I know that – I’m a perfectly intelligent person – and yet every time there is a lingering fear that this might be the big one. This maybe is the one that will never go away.”

Puttnam said his wife can see an ME attack coming on because he develops what she calls “marmoset eyes”.

He believes the condition was triggered by a viral infection in 1988 which hit him at a period in his life when he was working himself into the ground.

After making The Killing Fields and The Mission in the space of two years, he became head of Columbia Pictures in Hollywood.

His time there was not a success – he had hoped to make low-budget, European-style films but fell out with big-name stars and producers of blockbusters such as Rambo.

He was initially thought to have dengue fever following a trip to south-east Asia, but a Californian doctor later diagnosed him with ME.

Puttnam is now patron of the charity Action For ME and has spoken out to raise awareness of the condition.

ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) was originally dubbed “yuppie flu” because it affects mostly middle-class high achievers.

There is no established cause or cure and many in the medical profession are sceptical about its existence.