I faced bombs as a Para.. but was blown up filming with a Bond girl

MY AMAZING LIFE BY STAR BERNARD CRIBBINS | Actor's narrow escape on set

BEFORE Doctor Who, The Wombles, The Railway Children and even Carry On Jack, the late great Bernard Cribbins saw action as a Para in Palestine during his National Service.

It was "six months of getting shot at; I don't recommend it", he recalled.

Yet despite near misses, the actor, who died last week aged 93, was only injured when he returned to acting.

Here in extracts from his autobiography Bernard Who?: 75 Years of Doing Just About Everything, he tells all about his close shaves with bombs and bullets, a bum deal in the desert and working with the very first Bond girl.

On November 30, 1947, the Palestine War officially began. Prior to then, the British Army's 6th Airborne Division had been serving as peacekeepers in Palestine since the Second World War.

We in 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, were sent out to take over and were transported to Palestine on the troopship HMT Empire Windrush.

We arrived at Peninsula Barracks, in Haifa, on about 8 December and I was on one of the first guards there.

Lucky old me, eh? After finishing a stag - a period of duty - during this first guard, the sergeant came up and said, "Go and get the tea, Cribbins."

"Yes, Sergeant," I replied, before picking up a large metal bucket (yes, we transported our tea in a bucket) and walking down towards the nearby Mediterranean where the cookhouse was.

I could see in front of me a lovely glow in the sky. It must have been about four o'clock in the morning and I assumed it was the sunrise - I smiled and it gave me a lovely warm feeling.

When I turned the next corner I got the shock of my bloody life as there in front of me was a huge hut on fire. This was part of a wooden encampment that encompassed the aforementioned cookhouse, the NAAFI stores and, unless I was very much mistaken, the armoury!