Leeds' 'Marathon Man' Parachute Regiment veteran who starred in chocolate bar TV advert

But when he looks back on all of his adventures from the comfort of his home in east Leeds, he says that he owes his life to his time spent in the Parachute Regiment. His first jump was taken alongside his late brother, Jim, at 800 feet and it remains a dear memory for Mick.

He said: “When you jump out of the cage, it’s like your stomach finishes above your ears. Jim went out before me and said, ‘I’ll see you downstairs’ and he jumped out. The dispatcher said, ‘Right young Durkin, follow your brother’. As I jumped, he yelled: ‘Come back!’

“You have to be some kind of nutcase to jump out of a plane with 39 other guys, jumping out at one second intervals. What that did is put me on the right track to grow up and to learn to be a better person with a better outlook in life and if there's a door shut, try and open it.”

Leaving the Paras after four years, Mick found himself playing for an amateur rugby league team. Now 70, he recalls injuring his ribs and lungs during one match and being told to get back out there because another player had been hurt too. He said: “They said, ‘Do what you can’ and that’s probably when I went face first in the mud, and woke up in Leeds General Infirmary with a tubes coming out of my chest.”

Not long after – when Mick was just 23 years old – he was stabbed four times in the chest and once in the back, leaving his lungs severely injured for a second time. It was this moment in 1975 that defined how Mick would spend the rest of his life. He said: “From that day onwards, when I came out of that and I survived, I led life differently. I led life as if I am on borrowed time, I’ve always done any challenge that I wanted to do and I don’t shy away from anybody and I never will do.”

Mick continued to play rugby until the age of 32, when he resigned due to “age and aching bones”. He said that while he regrets not doing more in the Parachute Regiment and rugby league, it paved the way for other opportunities. He added: “It’s a brotherhood, you are always a Para no matter what throughout your life. You find the same kind of camaraderie in the rugby league.”

It was during his rugby days that Mick also ventured into comedy when he was pushed forward by his friends to do stand-up. After earning a few coins, he started watching other comedians and learnt the tricks of the trade, producing his own scripts and writing down any jokes he thought he could use.

Mick would give away free raffle tickets to people before his shows, giving him a chance to meet the crowd whether it was charity fundraiser or a gig in a strip club. He said: “I get to know them in a brief 30-second conversation, and I handpicked the people so I could have good fun with them and banter and everyone has a laugh.”

His transition into comedy was almost inevitable; his school reports had read: “Quite good but always finds excuses for fooling around while playing with friends.”

It was in 1986 that he became known to a wider audience when he auditioned for a role in a TV ad for Marathon chocolate bars, now known as Snickers. He was taken to Malta for the filming, where he was ironically told to look like he was fishing on the Yorkshire coast. Two weeks later he learned that his ad had been picked from all the others filmed and would be released. He added: “People then knew me as the Marathon Man.”

Now the UK sales manager for a printing company, Mick says there is always a possibility that he will return to his comedy days. He said: “At my age now, I like to reflect on what I have done. I could say I would like to relive my school years and learn more to have a better life – but I learnt nothing and I have had a great life! I have had a charmed life. I would like to write a book at some point because there’s so many stories that I can’t tell you but I could tell to a book.”