Bert Newton heads home from hospital

Veteran TV entertainer Bert Newton has been discharged from a Melbourne hospital after treatment for pneumonia. The 72-year-old was admitted to Epworth Hospital more than a week ago, causing him to pull out of the stage musical performance of Wicked in Perth. A hospital spokeswoman says Newton is now well enough to go home to continue his recuperation. Newton reportedly contracted the chest condition from his infant granddaughter. The producers of Wicked said the show would carry on as scheduled and Newton would rejoin the production once doctors gave him the all-clear. Newton says he is hoping to return to work soon. "I would think in the next couple of weeks, hopefully," he said. "There's a bit of rehab to do. I have my locum here, Patti Newton, who will keep me on the straight and narrow, which she has done for as many years as we've been married. "I think she might be a little heavier on me now." He says his time in hospital will not slow him down. "What I do I don't see it as a job, I see it as a very important part of my life," he said. "If I didn't have my family and work, well I couldn't imagine life without either of those. "So I've got family and work to go back to and hopefully a few years left." The 72-year-old has also starred in a string of musical theatre productions including Beauty And The Beast, The Producers and The Sound Of Music, but he says there is "a magic" about Wicked. But it is his television career spanning more than 50 years that he is most famous for. Aside from a period with Channel Ten, Newton has long been in Channel Nine's stable. He starred alongside Graham Kennedy on In Melbourne Tonight and with Don Lane on the Don Lane Show. The four-time Gold Logie winner has also hosted New Faces, Good Morning Australia, Bert's Family Feud and 20 to 1. Newton, affectionately known as Moonface, is married to fellow television personality Patti Newton. They have two children, daughter Lauren and son Matthew, who is also an actor. The family have recently rallied around Matthew Newton after several domestic violence incidents and his admission to rehab for drug and alcohol addiction. From BBC