The Nestor family watched The Great Escape when it was on television and as a young girl Sharon accepted her father’s expert commentary without question.

“He’d say that bit was rubbish or another scene was good. Later I realised its importance to him and his informed understanding of the film.

‘THE diaries were around when I was a child, stored in my parents’ bedroom and dad was always happy for them to be used in school projects.

“I loved the cartoons and funny caricatures, but later appreciated their insight into camp life, laying bets on when war would end or recording the daily temperatures down to -14ºC.

“They tended to be treated reasonably as officers. Talk of escape was disguised as horse racing, as the word ‘tunnel’ was banned among prisoners.

“He describes Roger Bushell, who was one of the main escapers, skating on ice which was ‘not fit to hold’ and the result was ‘one very wet Kreigie’. He was one of the 50 shot.

“My father would have loved to have had a go at escaping, but there was a strict pecking order of who should go and instead he was deployed on intelligence, watching the guards.

“The BBC wanted to take me back Poland and we went for the day on October 12. It was incredibly emotional, but up-lifting. I took dad’s diary out with me.”

The camp site is in the middle of nowhere with just a sign saying Stalag Luft III down a lane, gradually being reclaimed by the surrounding forest.

“He had detailed drawings of Hut 103, in which he lived and Hut 104 where The Great Escape took place. It was amazing to stand where my dad stood 66 years ago,” says Sharon.

“We found the big fire pool, which Roger Bushell fell into. My dad described cleaning and swimming in it.

“The crew and myself felt this place was spooky, you could almost feel the men’s presence and hear their laughter and chatter.

“I was amazed by vastness of the camp. Signs indicate the foundations of the hospital and kitchen. We found the steps to the theatre where my father played an old woman.”

It was under the theatre’s seats that the escapers hid the sand excavated from their tunnelling.

“There’s a good museum nearby and bits of cooking pots and pans lie around the site, but we sensed the whole place is now a bit of an embarrassment to Poles,” says Sharon

Inside Out, BBC One North West tonight at 7.30pm.