Stuart leads charge on a ‘dream’ course
FOOTBALLER Stuart Pearce has had his Army dream come true after learning to drive a 17-tonne tank.
The ex-England ace – nicknamed Psycho – joined Love Island star Georgia Steel and TV’s Jenni Falconer on the ultimate tank driving course for a new forces radio series.
He revealed: “I always wanted to be in the Army – this is a dream come true.”
And Georgia tipped her helmet to our real Army heroes, saying: “I’ll be doing my make-up while they’re doing this day in, day out.”
The celebrity trio headed to
Tanks A Lot in Helmdon,
Northants, where owner Nick
Mead has assembled a collection of 180 former Army tanks and other vehicles.
They were given a series of tough tasks similar to the British military’s official test to qualify as a tank driver.
They included driving a
Chieftain tank through an obstacle course, balancing an Abbot tank on a ledge and guiding an amphibious vehicle down a steep drop into a muddy lake.
Their exploits will be featured in a new series,
On Track With
Forces Radio
BFBS.
Clambering into her Army fatigues,
Georgia looked glum.
“I feel like a Teletubby,” she admitted.
But the ITV2 beauty quickly mastered the controls, plunging her tank down into a rutted pit and out again.
She beamed: “It’s like a rollercoaster!”
Georgia fared better than
Stuart, who managed to nearly sink his amphibious vehicle in a pool of murky water.
He said: “I ran aground and we started to take on water. We had to bail out.”
The 56-year-old was also reprimanded for not giving his tank enough welly. He joked: “I’ve already got too many points on my licence.”
He added: “It was exhausting but I really enjoyed it – driving tanks is my idea of fun.”
After the stars had completed their trials it was my turn to take the controls.
But squeezing myself into the driving cab of the Abbot was an ordeal in itself. Somehow I ended up going in head first, Carry On style. After I was finally positioned the right way up, instructor Nick tried to reassure me when I was surprised to find there wasn’t a steering wheel.
Instead there were two levers and a puzzling gearbox. “It’s just like riding a horse,” he said. Having barely ever stroked a horse, let alone ridden one, this didn’t help. It took time to master pulling one lever to go left, the other for right, but after a while I got the hang of it, steaming through the mud and imagining myself as Brad Pitt in Fury. Later Stuart told me England’s current football heroes are a force to be reckoned with. He said “There’s a feel-good factor, with a lot of young players and a wonderful manager.”
But we both agreed neither of us would be making an
Army squad any time soon!
On Track With Forces Radio BFBS, a new radio series fusing military and music in the ultimate skills test for Forces Radio BFBS, starts on October 30 and is available on DAB+.