The magician Paul Daniels has told how he accidentally sliced off a finger with a circular saw while making props for his stage show.

The television personality said he was working in his garden shed on New Year's Day when a block of wood was thrown up and his hand went into the spinning blade.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, he said: "The saw went right through my first finger, missed my middle one almost completely and took the top of my third one.

"How it missed the second finger is a trick in itself. The top of the third finger is all ground up and gone."

The prestidigitator, who lives in Berkshire, managed to stop the saw and thrust his injured hand into his coat before running to his car and driving himself to hospital in Henley-on-Thames. Plastic surgeons saved his index finger but were unable to save the top of his ring finger.

Although he initially feared for his career and is yet to regain full sensation in his digits, he is hopeful of a full recovery.

"I was very worried. They did a fantastic job. Everything's on the mend now," he told the Mail. Daniels is touring next month and said he would have to "change my methods slightly" but his planned shows would still go ahead. The 73-year-old appeared on the BBC1 show Strictly Come Dancing in 2010 and was the second contestant to be voted off. He has also appeared on Celebrity Wife Swap with Debbie McGee, whom he married in 1988.