A BOURNEMOUTH World War Two veteran will be appearing on prime time television tomorrow, talking about his experiences as a prisoner in the camp that became the scene of the real Great Escape.

Now 97, Alfie Fripp recently travelled back to the site of Stalag Luft III at Zagan in Poland to be filmed for the one-off documentary featuring actor David Jason.

Sir David explained: “Like most of us who grew up in the 1950s, I was a huge fan of films that celebrated wartime escapes.

“But these thrilling yarns told only part of the story, so I’m going on a journey to dig deeper. I’ll hear about the grim realities of life behind the wire.”

Alfie, of Southbourne, joined the RAF in 1930 as an aircraft apprentice, but with war brewing, transferred to air crew as an observer in 1938.

In October 1939 – a few weeks after Britain declared war on Germany – he was photographing the rail movements of the German military from a Mk 1 Blenheim when the plane was shot down.

He was taken prisoner by the Germans with the immortal words: “For you the war is over.”

Alfie was held captive in a total of 12 different POW camps during his five years and seven months of captivity, but spent two years in Stalag Luft III.

The camp was supposed to be escape-proof, but became the scene of two daring escapes, later immortalised in hit films The Wooden Horse and The Great Escape.

As the man in charge of picking up Red Cross and other parcels from the railway station, Alfie procured items to help with the escape efforts. Like all the other prisoners, he also gave up boards from his bunk to prop up the tunnels.

Although Alfie was transferred to another camp six months before the Great Escape, 76 of his allied comrades made it out of the tunnel in March 1944.

Sadly, all but three were recaptured, and Hitler was so angry that he ordered 50 of them to be shot – among them Alfie’s pilot, Mike Casey.

• David Jason’s Great Escapes will be screened on ITV1 on Sunday evening at 8pm.