THE elderly mother of a Bolton stand-up comedian was stabbed in the neck in a horror attack.

Ellen Lee, mum of zany comic Ricky Livid, was rushed to the Royal Bolton Hospital yesterday afternoon following the attack at her home in Oakford Walk, Daubhill just after midday.

It is understood the 84-year-old woman called 999 herself.

Today she was recovering in hospital after undergoing emergency surgery and her condition was described as "comfortable."

Her comedian son Steve Lee, 53, who uses the stage name Ricky Livid and is well-known on the Northern club circuit rushed to be at his mother's side in hospital shortly after the attack.

As he left his Harwood home to go to his sister's house and then on to hospital, he said: "All I can at the moment is that she's doing okay. She's all right."

The knife attack comes 14 years after Mr Lee's first wife Kathleen died from a brain haemorrhage days before their 19th wedding anniversary.

Mr Lee remarried when his children Joanne and Justin had grown up and is now a grandfather-of-two.

Yesterday, as medics treated Mrs Lee, detectives sealed off her home while officers scoured the property.

Detectives arrested a man in Mrs Lee's house following the stabbing and described the incident as a "domestic matter".

A police spokesman said: "A 40-year-old man is in custody in connection with this incident. He will be questioned."