The actor and presenter grafted as an engineering apprentice in Yoker during the Second World War and became friends with lots of Clydebank characters.

The Londoner also revealed how he helped clear rubble during the Clydebank Blitz and volunteered to hand out tea to Bankies left homeless by the German bombing.

Now aged 92, Nicholas Parsons is still in good health and performs a comedy show, ‘A Life A Minute with Nicholas Parsons’, at theatres around the country.

With seven decades of experience working in TV and radio, the star has plenty of interesting tales for audiences.

But he revealed that the gags based on his times serving as a napprentice engineer with Drysdale and Co always have the audience in stitches.

Nicholas, who served at the Yoker yard from 1940 until 1945, told the Post: “The show is basically anecdotes from my life but the stories about my time on the Clydeside get the biggest laughs.

“I think it’s because of the incongruity of the images of a sophisticated theatrical performer in contrast with me in a boiler suit trying to keep grease out my hair.

“They don’t quite believe I could have done five years hard work in the shipyards.” Born in 1923 in Lincolnshire, Nicholas’ dad was a GP and his mother was a nurse.

In his teenage years Nicholas dreamed of a career on stage — but his dad had other ideas. Nicholas said: “I wanted to be an actor but my father said, ‘don’t be ridiculous, that’s not a proper job’.

“My uncle pointed out that I was clever at making things and had the ability to be creative with my hands. I was always pulling apart clocks and putting them together again. I’ve still got some of them actually.

“So my parents got in touch with relatives in Glasgow, who spoke to people they knew about finding me work, and then next thing I know I’m on a train to Glasgow.” Nicholas arrived in Glasgow in January 1940 and began staying in YMCA digs in the city centre before moving to live near Kelvingrove Park.

His relatives had found him a job as an apprentice engineer with Drysdale and Co, who manufactured items such as hydraulic pumps and presses.

Nicholas recalls getting the tram from Glasgow along Dumbarton Road and got off at Ferry Road to start a job a million miles away from acting.

He arrived as a middle class 16 year old with a posh London accent — and was thrown into the mix alongside working class young men from all around Clydebank.

“I thought I had entered another world,” he said. “I was an English public schoolboy and thought they were all speaking another language.

“I found they were using adjectives I had only seen on lavatory walls before.

“I must have seemed like a complete oddball to them at first, but somehow I survived.

“Maybe it’s the natural actor in me, but I successfully found a rapport with these guys from Clydebank and became friends with them.” The actor told how he stood out from the crowd and at first some of his workmates were suspicious about how he managed to land the apprentice job.

He explained: “One of them said to me, ‘I want to ask you a question — are you one of the boss’ men?’ “I replied, ‘I don’t know who the bosses are at all.’ But of course I did — that’s how I got the job.

“So they welcomed me in and I became very good friends with the other workers. I made them laugh and was embraced for that.” On March 13 and 14, 1941, Clydebank was decimated by two nights of German bombing.

Nicholas, who was also in the Home Guard at the time, recalls turning up for work at Drysdale’s in the aftermath.

He said: “It was ghastly. I remember going down with friends to see what we could do to help, and we took tea round people.

“It was pretty bad near Ferry Road. One of the big tenements had a direct hit so the damage was all out of proportion because those buildings are so colossal.

“I had been staying in my digs at Park Crescent at Kelvingrove Park when the bombing was taking place but could still hear what was going on.

“During the war you would get 10 days holiday and normally you would go back home. So I returned to London for my holidays — and that was also right in the middle of the blitz down south.

“The sirens went every night and you could hear the whistle sounds from the bombs.” The young apprentice studied at Glasgow University during his time in the city and qualified as an engineer. He was also given a position in the Merchant Navy during the war, but ended up in Glasgow’s Victoria Hospital for five months through illness.

Two years after returning back down south, Nicholas followed his dream career and went on to become a household name. He was best known for his comedy radio game show Just a Minute, and as the long term host of ITV game show Sale of the Century, which peaked at 21 million viewers.

But the star has never forgotten his time spent in this area and sailed down the Clyde again on The Waverley around seven or eight years ago for a film about his early years.

He said: “It was hellish, unforgiving work at times, especially as there wasn’t much food due to war rations.

“But I feel privileged to have had the whole experience.

“I was made to feel welcome and I have a great love of Glasgow folk. They are very warm and genuine people and they accepted me even though I was a complete oddity to them.

“I worked with some wonderful characters and I would say that Clydesiders are an amazing breed of people.”