Former Coronation Street actor Chris Fountain has said he was left “speaking like a toddler” after suffering a mini stroke.

The 35-year-old, who played Weatherfield’s Tommy Duckworth in the long-running soap, told the Daily Mirror he spent five days in a London hospital after waking up at home unable to speak properly in August.

The actor told the newspaper doctors had discovered he had suffered a Transient Ischaemic Attack (TIA) – known as a mini stroke – after a blood clot lodged in his brain.

Chris Fountain arriving for the UK Premiere of Morning Glory, at the Empire Leicester Square, London
Chris Fountain suffered a Transient Ischaemic Attack in August (Ian West/PA)

Fountain said: “I woke up one morning and knew something wasn’t right.

“My mum called me and I just couldn’t get my words out. I started walking round my house looking at things and I could think what the word was, like television or fridge, but I couldn’t say it.

“I called 111 on my mum’s advice and they sent an ambulance for me, it was so scary.

Chris Fountain arrives for the National Television Awards in 2005
Chris Fountain starred on Coronation Street from 2011 to 2013 (Ian West/PA)

“I felt stupid because I knew exactly what I wanted to say to the doctors, but I couldn’t get the words out, I was speaking like a toddler, I was really embarrassed.”

The 35-year-old said he had broken down in tears when doctors informed him he had had a TIA.

After several days of undergoing tests at a specialist stroke unit at the Royal London Hospital, medics had determined the actor had a hole in his heart which had caused the blood clot to travel to his brain, triggering the stroke.