Daredevil Guy Martin has recreated Steve McQueen's iconic death-defying motorbike leap from the Great Escape, one of the most famous stunts in film history.

The motorcycle racer turned TV presenter, 38, followed in the footsteps of McQueen's Captain Virgil Hilts by attempting to leap the barbed wire fence in the Alps on a Triumph 1200cc Scrambler.

But Martin went one better than 'The Cooler King' by jumping over the second fence, making it an impressive 60ft leap at a height of nine feet, and made it by the barest of margins.

Guy Martin has recreated Steve McQueen's iconic motorbike leap over a fence which featured in the Great Escape

McQueen's character Captain Virgil Hilts, 'The Cooler King', jumped over the fence while fleeing Nazi soldiers

Guy Martin recreated the jump for a documentary and went one better, jumping over the second fence as well

The jump is featured in a documentary to be aired next week titled Guy Martin's Great Escape, in which he explains the history of the classic film and why it became such a favourite.

Martin, who has Asperger's syndrome, said: 'There are two goals of the programme. One is to teach me to jump a bike over a fence. The other is to highlight the fact that the escape ended in mass murder.'

He was alluding to the fact that fifty of the escapees ended up being killed by the Gestapo.

The jump is featured in a documentary to be aired next week titled Guy Martin's Great Escape

The Great Escape starring Steve McQueen (pictured in the film) is based on the real-life story of a mass escape by British Commonwealth prisoners of war from German POW camp Stalag Luft III in Sagan - now Żagań, Poland

In the film, McQueen gets entangled in the second, taller border fence while attempting to flee the Nazi soldiers and is recaptured and returned to the cooler.

The stunt was actually performed by stuntman Bud Ekins, not McQueen, and Martin travelled three feet higher than him in the daring leap.

Wearing the same outfit of blue top and sand-coloured chinos as McQueen, Martin travelled to the same slope in the same field where the iconic scene was filmed, The Sunday Times reported.

The daredevil said it is one of the most difficult stunts he has ever attempted despite having twice broken his back, once in a 170mph motorcycle crash which was nearly fatal.

The prisoner of war drama, directed by John Sturges (1910-1992), starred McQueen (pictured) as 'Captain Virgil 'The Cooler King' Hilts'

McQueen did a number of his own stunts but stuntman Ben Ekins performed the famous motorbike jump

The actor (left) is pictured alongside stuntman Bud Ekins (right) while dressed in Germany military uniform

A Cambridge University engineering professor, Hugh Hunt, helped Martin out to work out the optimum trajectory for the jump.

After months of training, Martin completed the stunt but only just, clipping the wire on the second fence after the bike came down too early.

The daredevil biker was unscathed but it could have ended a lot worse.

Martin, who was named after the Dambusters bomber pilot Guy Gibson, performed the stunt on a Triumph 1200cc Scrambler which had been adapted with reinforced shock absorbers.

He said: 'I'm a normal bloke doing extraordinary things. I'm not Einstein, I'm just seeing things how the man in the street would see things.

'People think, if I had that opportunity, that's how I would do it.'

Watch the motorbike jump on Guy Martin's Great Escape on Channel 4 at 9pm on December 8