I built an Airfix Spitfire when I was just 8... I never dreamed I’d get to fly one says Al Murray

COMEDIAN Al Murray left his alter ego The Pub Landlord behind the bar yesterday to fulfil a childhood ambition to fly in a Spitfire.

The iconic aircraft is 75 years old this year and will be the star of this weekend's Duxford Air Show at the Cambridgeshire airfield where it first entered RAF service.

Here the 43-year-old comic, who is also a history enthusiast, explains what a thrill it was to fly in the Battle of Britain aircraft, and why it is so important to keep our history alive.

JUST the mention of the name Spitfire is enough to conjure up vivid images of one of the most important times in our nation's history.

To be up close to such an iconic aircraft is to soak up some of that past.

But can you imagine what it is like to actually fly in one?

I would call it a Boy's Own dream but I am not sure I ever really dreamt as a boy that it would be possible.

I am of that Airfix generation who had all of these aircraft hanging from the ceilings of their bedrooms. I even had a little airstrip.

I probably built my first Mk IX Spitfire when I was eight so I have been imagining this moment for 35 years – roughly half the life of this aircraft.

Models are one thing, but this was the real deal.

This actual Mk IX Trainer, built in 1942, was one of the first aircraft to arrive at the D-Day beaches in 1944.

Read more and photos: http://www.thesun.co.uk