Bill Ash escaping activities. He ended the war as a flight lieutenant. In August 2015, the BBC reported: "When Ash died aged 96 last year his obituaries noted that he was said to have been the model for Virgil Hilts, the lean, leather-jacketed airman played by Steve McQueen in the 1963 film "The Great Escape"". The character Hilts, nicknamed "The Cooler King" because of the time he spends in the prison camp's punishment block (which the prisoners call the "cooler") for his persistent escape attempts, steals a motorbike and tries to escape to Switzerland but is caught while using it to jump
The Great Escape (Irish TV series) tour business. As professional athletes they do not earn very much and they have short careers. Tarja is helped in her endeavours by local hotel owner Merco but Niall's focus is on training which presents difficulties for Tarja. John Boland of the "Irish Independent" referred to the Dankers of series two's opening episode as a "charmless couple" he was willing to "hurriedly bypass" in his argument that the BBC had entertained him more than RTÉ. The Great Escape (Irish TV series) The Great Escape is an Irish television series broadcast on RTÉ One each Tuesday night at 22:15. It follows