ON A POIGNANT JOURNEY TO FRANCE, ACTRESS VICKY MCCLURE ACCOMPANIES HER BELOVED GRANDAD RALPH TO HONOUR HIS D-DAY EFFORTS

'You're here now, at 97 years old, suited, booted, with your medals on. I'm so proud of you, Grandad, I'm so grateful'

- EMILY HORAN

She is best known for turfing out corrupt cops as DI Kate Fleming in Line of Duty, and fearlessly defusing bombs as Trigger Point’s Lana Washington.

But, wading in the waters of the English Channel dressed head to toe in battledress, Vicky McClure was not playing a character when she took on her most emotional role to date. Instead, she was re-creating the heroic efforts of those who took part in the Second World War D-Day landings in Normandy on 6 June 1944 – troops who included her beloved grandad Ralph, now 97.

“My heart is just bursting,” says the Nottingham-born actress, full of pride, in her poignant new ITV documentary,