Carry On star Peter Butterworth has been revealed to have been part of The Great Escape during World War Two.
Butterworth is known to millions for appearing in a string of Carry On movies, most memorably as farmer Joshua Fiddler in Carry on Camping and Citizen Bidet in Don't Lose Your Head.
But now his part in two famous World War Two escapes has emerged because Butterworth's German prisoner identity card has gone on display as part of an exhibition in London about life as a prisoner of war. The release of new documents from German archives has given more detail to the events.
The Great Escape, which was famously turned into a 1963 movie starring Steve McQueen, saw Butterworth play a crucial role in the break-out of 76 airmen from Stalag Luft III camp in Poland on the night of 24/25 March 1944.
Butterwoth was a Lieutenant in the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy, but he was shot down over Holland in 1941 and taken to the infamous prison run by the Luftwaffe.
The National Archives describes how he established a camp theatre that put on noisy productions that acted as cover for the prisoners digging the tunnels. It's also been revealed that Butterworth would help hide the soil from the digging in the camp theatre.
Amazingly, Butterworth was also part of another famous escape plan, The Wooden Horse, which was also made into a movie. He helped organise the escape, which took place on 29 October 1943. The ingenious plan saw the prisoners use plywood from Red Cross crates to build a gymnastics horse which they'd take out to the exercise yard each day to mask the fact they were digging a tunnel underneath. On the day of the escape, three prisoners hid inside the horse and were carried out to the spot where the tunnel was and fled!
Butterworth, who died aged 63 in 1979, was in Stalag Luft III with his friend Talbot Rothwell, who'd go on to write many of the most famous Carry On movies.
Out of the 76 men who escaped in The Great Escape, 73 were recaptured by the Germans within three days. Hitler had 50 of them executed.
The Great Escapes: Remarkable Second World War Captives is on at the National Archives in London until 21 July.
