David: I need a day Hoff..
GRANDAD RESCUED IRISH GUARDS
KEIRA Knightley weeps as she hears the wartime love story of her sonar operator grandfather and brave volunteer grandmother.
The Hollywood star is also moved when she learns her great-uncle Andrew, an RAF bombardier, was shot down over Germany and spent 18 months as a prisoner of war.
The revelations, in Channel 4 documentary My Grandparents’ War, come as the actress recalls that tough grandma Jan, from Glasgow, never spoke about her experience.
A historian tells Keira that her grandad Joseph “Mac” MacDonald, from Cardiff, served in the navy for 12 years from 1934.
He was a sonar operator, listening for U-boats. He was on HMS Wolverine when it helped rescue 700 Irish Guards from the stricken MS Chrobry in under 20 minutes, all while under intense attack.
Clerk
Jan had joined the war effort by volunteering as a clerk at a military hospital.
She was later involved with organising troop movements “of a secret nature”.
Keira also learns that her grandad, courting her grandma in Glasgow, crawled on his belly during a Blitz air raid to get to a date with her.
At the end of the film she cries as she reads out a sweet love poem from Mac, who died four years before she was born.
Keira (37) says: “It must have meant so much. It’s really got me.”
Her own mother Sharman reveals of Mac: “He loved her to bits and pieces all her life.”
My Grandparents’ War airs on Thursday on Channel 4 at 9pm.
DAVID Hasselhoff says he fancies a break from the huge hassle of being The Hoff.
The Baywatch star sees being himself as “work” that he can never escape.
He feels he has to be “charming and funny” at all times to avoid disappointing his fans.
The 70-year-old star said: “I’m always working. From the moment I wake up it’s like I’m The Hoff.
“Sometimes I just want to stay home and watch TV with my wife.’’