WHEN an amateur actor decided to make his Dad’s Army part more authentic by using two First World War hand grenades, he nearly brought the house down – literally.

Keith Poultney found the two rusting grenades in his mother-in-law’s Droitwich garage and decided they would be ideal props in his forthcoming production.

But as he set about removing the devices from the backing on which they were framed, he realised they appeared to still be live.

Mr Poultney, a financial adviser from Magor, near Chepstow, was in Droitwich for a family wedding at the weekend when he decided to find the devices.

“I remembered that my mother-in-law Jean Field had the two grenades tucked away somewhere in her garage at home.

“She’d been given them by her father years ago and they were gathering dust and some rust.

“They seemed ideal as props.”

The father-of-one, who is taking a lead role of Corporal Jones in the show, returned home where he set about knocking them off the metal backing.

“To my astonishment the lead plugs were still there in the base and the pins were also in the bottom of both,” he said. “For all intents and purposes they looked the real thing – live!

“The maker’s mark could still clearly be seen. The date 1918 was on the two of them, making them more than 90 years old.”

In true Corporal Jones fashion Mr Poultney didn’t panic, he called police and on their advice drove the grenades out into the middle of the countryside and awaited the arrival of the bomb squad.

The grenades were made safe with a controlled explosion and found not to be live.

“Now we don’t have the props for our show,” said the 56-year-old.

“Still, it could have been worse, they may have been live and that really would have brought the house down.”