A former Coronation Street star from Fermanagh said that his father, who fought in the Far East during the Second World War,  would ask him to smother him because "dying in a care home was worse than war".

Charlie Lawson, who famously played Jim McDonald on 'Corrie', opened up about his family’s wartime history when he joined historian James Holland and comedian Al Murray on a recent episode of their acclaimed podcast, 'We Have Ways of Making You Talk'.

During the podcast, Mr. Lawson revealed that the Second World War also claimed the lives of two of his uncles.

Speaking about his uncle, Gordon Glennie, Mr. Lawson said: “He had a good education and became a very devout Christian, even as a young man.

“He tried to join up and was found out — he was too young. The following year, he joined the Fogs, the Royal Irish Fusiliers.

“My father, Quintin, was in Belfast with his brother George at Campbell College, studying biology. He went to do his interview in Dublin at the famous university.

“On the way back up, he threw his papers out the window, got off the train and joined the RAF.

“In 1944, he ended up, having trained in Stratford-upon-Avon at Long Marston aerodrome, [in] South Africa to finish his training.

“From South Africa, he went to Burma and was in 79 Squadron, which was sponsored by the presidency of Madras. He was up the Irrawaddy River flying Hurricanes and Thunderbolts — they took what they could get. He flew 116 missions.”

The 64-year-old TV star said his father and fellow pilots would forego the option of a parachute, because of the prospect of landing in the impenetrable Burmese jungle, due to the risk of being captured by the Japanese.

Mr. Lawson also revealed his father didn’t mind saying he had 'a good war', adding: “He said the worst part of the war was having eight rabies injections a day, but he had a good war, and he enjoyed it.”

Meanwhile, Quintin’s brother George was serving on convoy escorts in the Atlantic, and Gordon - known as Gordy - was fighting his way up Italy.

Gordy, a lieutenant, was killed in action in October, 1943, while another uncle, Gordy’s brother Fred, died while serving with a bomb disposal unit as he attempted to defuse a German mine in Skegness.

Mr. Lawson recalled: “Mum would quite often talk about Gordy, but she never really got over his death.

"When your brother goes off to war, he’s a hero. When he’s killed, he’s even more of a hero.

"She would talk for a bit, get a bit upset and that would be the end of it. Dad, with the Cream of the Barley, he would quite happily talk about it.

“When I was very young, he taught me to fire his service automatic. He somehow managed to bring it back to Northern Ireland of all bloody places!

“He used to keep it by the bed. I have the case at the other end of the room, but the automatic .22 disappeared.

“Although he had a pretty tough war, I’ll never forget when he was in a home. I was away working, he was in Scotland, Mum had died years before, and he was on his own.

“He made the decision to go into this home. We all know the horrendous stories [about care homes], but I am not casting aspersions on this home.

“I remember sitting with him one day, talking about the war. I remember him talking about when he got four paddles on the Thunderbolt instead of three. It was fascinating, the stuff they used to make the aircraft do in action.

“Visiting him about two or three days later, he was there, a war hero — though he never called himself one, he was to me — sitting in a nappy on his last legs, so to speak.

“He said to me, ‘If I could ask you to smother me, I would, because this is worse than Burma’.

"Unfortunately, he died a few days later in my wife’s arms,” added Mr. Lawson.