IN PAIN: Hugh Laurie's days as Dr House may be ended by the agony of pretending to have a limp

But that realistic limp could force him out of the TV series that earns him £250,000 an episode because of the pain of contorting his body.

“The show might last to series seven, eight or nine but I don’t know if I will,” he said last night, “because I’m starting to lose my knees a little bit.

“It’s a lot of hip work. There’s things going badly wrong. I need to do yoga.”

The 50-year-old star, a winner of two Golden Globes and just nominated for his third Best Actor Emmy, is about to launch the sixth series of what has become the most watched television drama.

More than 80million ­people tune in every week to follow the cantankerous, cane-wielding ­clinician as he unravels medical mysteries.

Laurie, the son of a doctor, was best known in Britain for his roles in Jeeves And Wooster and the Blackadder series before “almost falling into” House after a haphazard video audition in a tiny bathroom while filming Flight Of The Phoenix in Namibia.