COLIN'S HELL AS HOSTAGE

The real John McCarthy had to endure 1,943 days in a dank Beirut cell ... Colin could only stand it for a few hours a day during the two-month filming.

The 32-year-old actor confesses his role in the controversial film "wasn't much fun".

Hostages (Wednesday, ITV, 8.00pm) dramatises for the first time the appalling brutality and conditions suffered by six western hostages—McCarthy, Brian Keenan, Terry Waite, Terry Anderson, Tom Sutherland and Frank Reed.

One of the most feared parts of their ordeal was being taped from head to foot like an Egyptian mummy and taken from one Beirut safe-house to another.

Colin, who also starred in the BBC Falklands drama Tumbledown, suffers from claustrophobia.

He says: "Even being shoved in the boot of a car for a few seconds was nerve-wracking.

"Being mummified was a frightening experience—it was ghastly. I spent over two hours taped up with nothing left sticking out except my nose.

"The hostages had to endure it for ten hours at a stretch and were under threat of death.

"It was appalling but I was very aware I was in safe hands and had a signal to give the crew if I needed to get out." 

Granada spent 18 months researching the hostages' ordeal before they were released and gained valuable information from Jill Morrell, played [by] Natasha Richardson.

They even put the project on ice until all the captives were released, in case it jeopardised their chances of freedom.

But after being freed, Brian and John refused to get involved.

John talked about feeling "exploited at a time when I'm trying to get back to normal.

"I don't understand how Granada can present a realistic account of what I went through

when I haven't told anyone what it was like. Given the huge public sympathy for the hostages, it seems a shame the first account will be based on guesswork."

Colin, who also stars with Oscar-winner Kathy Bates in the two-hour drama, says their refusal to help worried him.

He confesses: "I had no contact with John and did absolutely nothing to base myself on him.

"If he is upset by the film, then I will be concerned but I can't afford to set too much store by his reaction."

KAREN HOCKNEY