The late John Fraser on Richard Todd and the Dam Busters

Last year, the Old Un was delighted to visit matinée idol John Fraser. Fraser, who has sadly just died aged 89, was best known as Flight Lieutenant John Hopgood DFC in The Dam Busters (1955).

‘I didn’t think anyone would be interested in a film about making a bomb,’ he says, ‘I was wrong.’

He played alongside the marvellous – but vertically-challenged ­– Richard Todd.

‘I told one make-up girl I was wearing elevators in my shoes,’ he says. ‘I was embarrassed by my height. She said, “Don’t worry, Richard’s elevators are so high his shoes are peeping out of his flies.”’