Anecdotes

In late 2014 he suffered an aortic aneurysm. Due to complications, surgeons had to amputate both of his legs; one above the knee and the other below it.

He performed all his own stunts in Blake's 7 (1978). He thinks he must have been mad, because a lot of them were quite dangerous.

He appeared in 51 of the 52 episodes of Blake's 7 (1978), more than anyone other than Michael Keating. The only episode in which he did not appear was the pilot, The Way Back (1978).

His real surname is Birkby. When an agent advised him to change it to a more easily recognisable and pronounceable one, his father suggested the name Darrow, after the American attorney Clarence Darrow.

His nickname on the set of Blake's 7 (1978) was "Blint", because he was thought to be a mixture of Burt Lancaster and Clint Eastwood.

In 2003, he, Andrew Mark Sewell, and Simon Moorhead formed a consortium called 'B7 Enterprises' that had acquired the rights acquired the rights to Blake's 7 (1978) from Terry Nation's widow. The plan was to revive the show as a mini-series, starring Darrow in his original role as Avon, but due to disagreements about the direction of the show, he has since left the consortium.

In an Interview by Karen Davies and Paul Winter at the Cult TV festival in October 2003, he revealed that he wasn't really interested in science fiction until he met Isaac Asimov. Reading one of his books sparked his interest in the genre.

He is well known to be accident-prone with props, especially with his guns on the set of Blake's 7 (1978). In fact, he broke so many of them, the team built a special gun with an aluminium core for him. Paul suspects that the transfer to a more solid weapon model in later seasons resulted from his accidents.

He is the author of Avon: A Terrible Aspect, a 1989 novel about Avon's father and Avon's own early life. Darrow's autobiography, You're Him, Aren't You? was published in 2006. Darrow narrated the 2008 audio book of Terry Nation's classic children's story 'Rebecca's World, Journey to the Forbidden Planet'.

An extinct crocodile from the Miocene of Australia, Baru darrowi, was named after him.

He originally auditioned for the part of Blake in Blake's 7 (1978), and was later recommended for the role of Avon by Vere Lorrimer.

In 2012, he returned to the role of Kerr Avon in Big Finish Productions' Blake's 7: The Liberator Chronicles, a series of dramatic readings which take place during Series One before the death of Olag Gan. Darrow stars as Avon in The Turning Test and The Magnificent Four by Simon Guerrier and Counterfeit by Peter Anghelides.

He records voiceovers and straplines for UK Jack FM station in Oxfordshire.

He is a huge fan of cinema. As a teenager, according to some interviews, he spend a lot of his time in the cinema, and usually stayed there until his mother phoned the usherette to send him home for tea.

He played the role of Samuel Vimes in the 1998/9 touring production of the play based on Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel "Guards! Guards!".

He was Patron of the University of York Astronomy Society (AstroSoc) 1981-1984.

Has acted in both the James Bond franchise and the Doctor Who franchise.

He played different parts in two different Doctor Who (1963) serials - Captain Hawkins in "Doctor Who and the Silurians" and Maylin Tekker in "Timelash". He was also considered for many guest roles in the series - Persuasion in "Four to Doomsday", Captain Stapley in "Time-Flight", Valgard in "Terminus", Commander Vorshak and Bulic in "Warriors of the Deep", Lytton in "Resurrection of the Daleks", and Arak in "Vengeance on Varos".

He admitted in a 2004 BBC interview that he was hooked on Footballers' Wives (2002), and he would have liked to be in it.

He starred as Elvis Presley in the West End stage musical "Are You Lonesome Tonight?".

He was interviewed for a part in Le Bounty (1984).

He got his first cigarette from his uncle. He was five.

He stars as the cynical character Kaston Iago in the Magic Bullet's Kaldor City audio series.

He was known as a "Kiss of Death" to a lot of actresses, since no female character he kissed in Blake's 7 (1978) had ever survived the episode.

In 2004 he was the subject of the fourth volume of MJTV's "The Actor Speaks" audio CDs, featuring frank interviews and dramatic pieces, alongside guest Peter Miles, with a piece specifically written by Tanith Lee.

His favourite music artists include Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison and Bob Dylan.

His college roommates were John Hurt and Ian McShane.

He was considered for the roles of Caine, Dr, Armstrong, Bukovsky, Lamson and Kelly and other roles in Lifeforce (1985).

Graduated from RADA.

Received his formal education at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School.

In 2014 had an aortic aneurysm and due to complications during treatment, surgeons had to amputate both his legs.

Paul was married to actress Janet Lees Price who he met when they were in repertory at York and appeared together every week for 9 months until he went to Northampton and she went to Ipswich then by coincidence they were both chosen for the tv series Energency Ward 10 within 24 hours of each other with him playing Dr Verity and she as Nurse Susan Jones.