Supervet Noel Fitzpatrick: ‘I was millimetres away from death’

He treated Meghan Markle's dog and Russell Brand's cat. But now the TV vet is dealing with serious injury and trauma - his own and his beloved terrier's

On the way to his office Prof Noel Fitzpatrick gives me a quick tour of all the familiar locations from Channel 4's The Supervet, flicking lights on and off as we go: the consulting room, the operating theatre, complete with viewing gallery. I have already visited the main entrance where, on the TV programme, a pair of receptionists ooh and ahh over new, frequently unprepossessing, animal arrivals.

Finally we end up in Fitzpatrick's densely cluttered office, also familiar, where he sits at a desk dominated by five computer screens. Skeletons and bits of metal implants cover the flat surfaces, including the windowsill. Behind me is a standing cardboard cutout of the actor Hugh Jackman; on the wall next to my head is a sign that reads: Always be yourself, unless you can be Batman. Then always be Batman."