If you were heading to the cinema in 1963, you may have been off to see one of the greatest World War II movies, The Great Escape, which opened first at the Odeon, Leicester Square, London and has been a staple of UK Christmas television viewing pretty much ever since.
Steve McQueen starred as the irreverant Captain Virgil Hilts - ‘The Cooler King’. You can already hear the baseball…
McQueen was a skilled rider but it was his friend and stunt double, Bud Ekins, who jumped the barbed-wire fence on a Triumph TR6 Trophy.
Insurance concerns were cited as the reason Steve didn’t do the jump, but he did, in front of cameras. The final cut was Bud riding, though.