Harry Potter stuntman reveals stunt that went very horribly wrong | Books | Entertainment

He was just 25 when he filmed the scene that would leave him paralysed. And while David Holmes initially retained some use of his arms, 15 years after the accident he can only use his left arm. Worse still, his injuries are degenerative and his life expectancy has been put at just 65.

However, the 43-year-old has found love and his injuries have not stopped him from travelling.

He insists: “I’m not a victim because I’m paralysed. I’m a victor. It made me the human being that I am.”

In his memoir The Boy Who Lived he vividly captures the thrills and spills of life as a stuntman on seven Harry Potter films, and the lows of his life in the wake of his accident.

Back in January 2009, David was filming a scene in Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows in which Harry has a showdown with evil Voldemort’s serpent Nagini.

He was placed in a harness attached to a wire that ran the length of the Warner Bros studio.

Then he was launched through the air for a spectacular collision with a wall of crash mats.

But the wire carried him across the space at such high speed that his spine connected with the mats at a dangerous angle.

His nose smashed into his chest, severing two vertebrae, and he dropped to the floor.

He could not feel anything when stunt director Greg Powell ran over and squeezed his hand. He realised straightaway that he had broken his neck.

“I wanted to scream,” David says, “but it was impossible.”

He was so badly injured the ambulance drove him to Watford General Hospital at 5mph, avoiding speed bumps to protect his spinal cord, even though the sooner he was operated on, the greater the hope of retaining some function.

An MRI scan showed the extent of the injuries and he was transferred to a specialist spinal unit at Stanmore Hospital where he underwent an operation to realign his dislocated spine.

He drifted in and out of consciousness for days, clinging to the hope that he might recover.

But a few days later it dawned on him that he would never work as a daredevil again.

He recalls he would wake in the night thinking he’d had a nightmare. “Then the truth would smash into me like a ten-tonne truck… I was drowning in a moment of unfathomable loss.”

His parents were often by his side and leaned on their religious beliefs to cope. But they couldn’t even hug him because he was so fragile.

David was discharged after seven months in hospital and was moved into a wheelchair-accessible bungalow in Essex.

But it wasn’t long before he needed surgery to drain fluid gathering in his brain stem spinal cord.

He was then dealt another devastating blow when he learned that what strength he had left would degenerate with time, eventually leaving him struggling to breathe, speak or even swallow independently.

After he was discharged David sought solace in drugs.

On one occasion he booked a lavish holiday to Ibiza with friends, blowing £2,000 on drugs in just two days.

He cleaned up his act in 2015 following an agonising spasm in Spain that left him bedridden.

But by 2019 he had lost the use of every muscle group on his right-hand side. He risked his life for a spinal operation that he hoped might prolong his mobility, but to no avail. He now relies on his left arm for any semblance of independence. “I go through the stages of grief with every muscle group I lose,” he says. “I’m always navigating that – trying to hold it together so it doesn’t become overwhelming.”

David had always been a daredevil. As a child, he would jump from his bedroom window onto the trampoline in the garden, so his mother signed him up to the local gymnastics club.

In 1997, through his gymnastics club, he landed a role as a “stunt kid” for Hollywood movie Lost In Space, starring Friends actor Matt LeBlanc.

A couple of years later he landed a job on Liz Hurley film Bedazzled, which led to the offer of work on the new Harry Potter film franchise.

He loved JK Rowling’s books and said the set at Leavesden Studios, Herts, blew his mind. One day he would be flying Harry’s Nimbus 2000 broomstick or saving Hermione from a troll, another day he’d be battling Voldemort: “The job was absolutely perfect for me.”

He suffered plenty of accidents and injuries over the years, from broken bones to concussion, and fully understood how dangerous his job was.

But he said he was never scared ahead of performing a stunt, just nervous: “In the aftermath, I ached for days, sometimes weeks. But the pay cheque eased the hurt.” In Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, David doubled for Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy in a fight with Harry, his stunts leaving him “battered and broken”.

But he also earned £8,000 for eight takes. As the money rolled in, David started partying hard.

He gleefully dropped out of school, though the careers advisor warned that his career could be cut short by injury.

And so it proved in January 2009 when David performed the stunt that would change his life. “What I’d give to go back there now,” he says.

Today, he needs help to get to bed and a carer visits to turn him over in the night. In the morning they stretch his limbs then hoist him into the shower. A toilet visit adds an hour to the process.

David received a financial settlement from Warner Bros after the accident. “It’s not cheap being disabled,” he says. “It costs £250,000 a year just to get out of bed.”

Yet despite the remorseless challenges of daily life, David is resolutely upbeat. Though his sex life is over, he has found love. “My girlfriend Rosie, who I love dearly, is also a quadriplegic.”

They met two years ago after he booked her fully-accessible villa in southern Spain, then invited her to visit his hi-tech home in Essex. “We were sitting outside and the wind blew hair in Rosie’s face. Rosie’s functions are not as capable as mine so I brushed her hair out her face. And that was it.”

Daniel Radcliffe was one of David’s earliest and most regular visitors in the wake of the accident and remain good friends: “We FaceTime every week and drop each other video notes.”

David is writing a children’s book series, as well as developing a passion for photography.

And he still loves to travel the world, no matter how exhausting and expensive that has become.

He’s also a regular visitor to Stanmore Hospital spinal ward, offering support to patients.

“Probably one of my greatest gifts is to be able to look for the silver lining, to search for the light and dig deep,” he says. “You can sit there and feel sorry for yourself, but if you focus on that negativity it is a downward spiral.

“I seize the day when I can, in any way I can. Do I love my situation? No. Am I proud of who I am? Yes.”

● The Boy Who Lived by David Holmes (Hodder & Stoughton, £22) is out now. Visit www.expressbookshop.com or call 020 3176 3832. Free UK P&P on online orders over £25.