Walter Cornelius: Life of daredevil 'birdman' remembered
The life of a Latvian man whose madcap feats included trying to fly across a river with homemade wings is being celebrated.
Walter Cornelius fled the Iron Curtain and settled in Peterborough, where he worked as a lifeguard at the city's lido.
In the UK he became a television hit, carrying out a number of bizarre stunts on BBC's Blue Peter in the 1960s and '70s, where he gained his 'birdman' moniker.
He also set world records as a strongman and for other eccentric exploits, including pushing a pea through a city and walking miles on his hands.
Cornelius died in 1983 at the age of 60.
His life, and the lives of many others who went through Peterborough lido's doors, are being marked in a new BBC Radio Cambridgeshire series, Loving the Lido.
