Joe McGann was on his deathbed when he told his son Stephen all about his heroic role on D-Day. actor Stephen, 61, had always been interested in his family's history - particularly his dad's experiences as a Royal Naval Commando in the . However, like many who , Joe was not always willing to open up.
Stephen told the : "Like a lot of guys from his day, he never spoke much about the details. He knew that I was interested as a kid and he used to tell me things. "My dad got suddenly seriously ill in 1984.
We thought he was going to die overnight, but the four of us boys were down in London being actors. "We all rushed to Liverpool and he was dying, but he survived the night and lived for another seven days with heart trouble. We got time with him.
"One of the things that I did with the time I had was ask him to tell me about the war - he used to talk occasionally if a film like 'The Longest Day' was on TV and that would open him up a little bit about the logistics of it. All the young boys liked it - it was like the Commando comics. "But on his deathbed, I said to him one day, 'dad, tell us about it one more time'.
He smiled at me because he knew what I was asking. "I'd already started with the family history by then. To his credit - I'll always love him for this - he started right from the beginning of his war service.
"He told me just the once, all the way through. A lot of this is coming from his account from that day, mixed with the other research we'd been able to do." Joe .
