13 Actors Who Almost Died Filming Major TV Shows

5. Red Dwarf - Craig Charles

In classic episode "Backwards," a prop designed to make a famous sequence look authentic almost led to star Craig Charles - playing grotty last human alive Dave Lister - dying during filming. The central premise of the episode was the discovery of an alternate Earth where time runs backwards, and it called for a sequence in which Charles walked out of a lake (which was shot backwards).

The problem was that Charles had weights in his pockets to keep him from floating, but he managed to get his foot stuck in mud while underwater, and would have drowned if not for the rescue mission that freed him.

There's a chance that the incident informed a character detail, as a later episode - "Last Human" - revealed that Lister has a lifelong fear of drowning.