Hi-De-Hi actor finds hidden bomb

Barry Howard as his character in Hi De HI with his co-star

Builders working at the home of former Hi-De-Hi star Barry Howard found a Second World War incendiary device hidden above his bedroom.

Workers removing a chimney breast at his flat in Poole, Dorset, dislodged the ten-inch device on Tuesday.

Mr Howard, 69, who played ballroom dancer Barry Stuart-Hargreaves, said he must have been unknowingly sleeping under the bomb for the past 20 years.

The dormant device, marked 1942, was taken away by a bomb disposal team.

I felt like running round Westbourne shouting 'Don't panic! Don't panic!' Barry Howard

Mr Howard, of Haydon Road, Branksome Park, told the BBC: "I had been sleeping under it for 20 years, and it had probably been there for 65.

"I think it may have been lodged in the chimney breast but I have no way of knowing what it was doing there. It just dropped down onto the floor.

"When the emergency services arrived, they put it on a plank and carried it out into the garden and put an upturned bucket over it.

"They even put a cordon up. I felt like running round Westbourne shouting 'Don't panic! Don't panic!'"

Mr Howard starred in the BBC sitcom, which was set at a 1950s holiday camp, for six series.