UNVEILING a bus named after Bernard Jordan did not go quite as well as the war hero’s famous Great Escape as a mishap left the mayor up a ladder.

Mayor Brian Fitch, his wife Norah, and Martin Harris, managing director of Brighton and Hove Buses, revealed the newly named bus with a ceremony yesterday but it was not all smooth sailing.

The Brighton and Hove Bus Company bus was selected to bear Mr Jordan’s name after a public campaign to honour him after he died.

As Coun Fitch went to pull back the sticky tape covering the white block letters the piece of string he was using snapped leaving the trio bewildered at what to do.

But the quick-thinking mayor had an idea and sent his chauffer Robert Robertson, the mayor of Peacehaven, to go and fetch a ladder.

Taking on the challenge the mayor invoked The Great Escaper’s can-do spirit, scaling the ladder to finally complete the bus’s grand unveiling as his anxious wife and the nervous Mr Harris watched on.

He said his wife does not like him climbing ladders as she does not like heights.

Mr Fitch said: “Norah can’t stand heights but I am quite used to ladders. Bernie brought out that great British spirit so we had to succeed – we could hardly just say ‘let’s come back another day’ could we?”

Bernard Jordan and his wife Irene died earlier this year after he rose to fame last summer when he fled his care home to reunite with his comrades in Normandy.

Mr Fitch said: “The important thing is we now have a bus named after him and that is what I wanted.

“I thought it was fitting the city made him an alderman and it was great to have the public acknowledge him.”