Comedian Sandi Toksvig cancels tour dates after being admitted to hospital with bronchial pneumonia

Comedian Sandi Toksvig has been forced to cancel the remainder of her tour after being admitted to hospital with bronchial pneumonia.

The presenter, comedian, and founder of the Women’s Equality Party was part way through her Australia and New Zealand tour with her show Sandi Toksvig Live! when she became ill.

“Team Toksvig” posted to her Twitter account on Saturday (3 December): “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 and perform.

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

Toksvig will be unable to go ahead with the last three dates on her tour in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland from 4 to 6 December.

Bronchial pneumonia is defined as acute inflammation of the bronchi, a part of the lower respiratory tract where air enters the lungs.

Fans were devastated to miss her shows, but wished her well, with one writing: “Hope Queen Sandi gets well soon.”

Another said: “Protect the Queen at all costs!”

Toksvig also received “healing thoughts” from author Joanne Harris and activist Peter Tatchell.

The comedian recently made headlines after she sent a scorching letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby in support of LGBTQ+ rights in the Church of England.

In July, Welby, the head of the Church of England and symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, received global backlash for a resolution at the global once-a-decade Lambeth Conference which asked bishops to reaffirm “homosexual practice as incompatible with scripture”.

Toksvig told Welby: “Oh Justin, how can you be so stuck? Are you saying that the Bible teaches us that none of us can ever learn from experience? That we can never grow and gain a deeper understanding of human behaviour than we had 2,000 years ago when you could still feel a crowd with two loaves and a handful of fish?

“Jesus doesn’t mentions sexuality at all. It clearly wasn’t a big deal for him. The only time I think he had anything like a conference was when he gathered 5,000 people for the Sermon on the Mount.

“That was when he talked about good trees bearing good fruit and bad trees bearing bad fruit. That’s the sort of message that would be great from you. Really simple. Just be a good person. That’s it.

“Jesus never even mentioned whether the tree was bent or not.”

The lesbian comedian invited Welby for a cup of coffee to discuss the issue, an invitation he later accepted.