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THE Welshman starring as Spartacus, in a gory new version of the rebel gladiator’s life story, is making a good recovery from cancer.

Father-of-two Andy Whitfield, 36, who grew up in Amlwch, Anglesey, was diagnosed with Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma after completing the first series of Spartacus: Blood and Sand.

It tells the age-old tale of Spartacus, who escaped from a gladiator school to lead a slave revolt that shook ancient Rome to its core.

Landing the part made famous by Catherine Zeta-Jones’ father- in-law Kirk Douglas, in the iconic 1960 movie Spartacus, was Whitfield’s big break.

But after the initial series won over the American viewing public despite its high sex and violence content, cable channel Starz had to postpone a follow-up season while Whitfield checked into a specialist hospital in New Zealand where the show was filmed.

Traditional treatment for the condition are gruelling, involving a mixture of chemo and radiotherapy and occasional stem cell transplantation.

But now South African model turned actress Lesley Ann-Brandt, who plays the slave Naevia in the series, has said Whitfield, a former Ysgol Syr Thomas Jones pupil, is on the road to recovery.

And she said a second series starring Whitfield as Spartacus would be filmed later this year.

Speaking in the US, she said: “Andy’s looking good. We’ve just had an e-mail message from him and he’s doing really great.

“He’s just about finished his treatment.

“Over the past few months I’ve managed to do lunch with Andy and his wife and he doesn’t look sick at all.

“He’s got 100% backing from his wife and family and after the prequel in which Andy will be appearing in one or two episodes we will be ready to go for a second series later in the year.”

The Starz channel, which has given its full backing to the Welshman, has commissioned a short prequel series so Whitfield can come back from illness without losing the title role.

Shooting of the prequel, in which Whitfield will make occasional appearances, begins in New Zealand in July.

'A blur of boobs and bullet-time camera work': next page

In Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Four Weddings and a Funeral star John Hannah plays gladiator school master Batiatus with Lucy Lawless of Xena: Warrior Princess fame, playing his wife.

The UK premiere of the graphic drama on Bravo on Tuesday last week gave the channel its biggest ever audience.

The heavily promoted show, described by the Radio Times as “a blur of boobs and bullet-time camera work” and “a swords-and-sandals epic for the Nintendo DS generation”, attracted 365,000 viewers, a 2.2% audience share.

Bravo’s previous highest audience was for an episode of Blade, broadcast in January 2007.

Spartacus delivered a huge ratings boost to Bravo, with an audience share nearly 10 times the network’s average for the slot over the past three months. But it has not met with universal approval.

MediaWatch director Vivienne Pattison believes sex and violence on TV can be harmful.

“We can no longer ignore the fact that what viewers see on television has an impact on society.

“There are numerous studies linking exposure to violence on TV to violent behaviour at large.

“And if there is the slightest possibility that explicit sex and violence on screen can cause this harm is it worth the risk in the interest of entertainment?”

After leaving North Wales where he was a regular at the Plaza Cinema in Bangor, Whitfield studied engineering at Sheffield University and worked in London for five years before moving to Sydney in 1999.

He used to work as an engineering “abseiler” checking out buildings such as the Sydney Opera House for problems.

But he took an acting course and became a well-known face, having appeared in around 40 Australian commercials also shown in Europe and Asia.

After “enjoying being on film sets” he was plucked from relative obscurity to play the lead in the movie Gabriel, shot around Sydney in 2006.

The film was a dark action picture set in purgatory, between heaven and hell.