Britain’s Got Talent winner Colin Thackery has urged people to be disciplined to beat the coronavirus “war”.

The Chelsea Pensioner and former Thorpe St Andrew resident said the ongoing pandemic relied on people to be patient as the country enters its second week of stricter guidance of staying at home.

Mr Thackery, who rose to fame as the oldest winner of the talent show, spoke on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday and recalled similar experiences from when he was a youngster growing up in World War Two.

Read more: Appeal for birthday messages for Daisy, 9, as she self-isolates away from mumHe said: “It is a war, no doubt about it, and it’s one we’ve got to fight and to fight a war you’ve got to be disciplined and you’ve got to do as you’re told, otherwise we’ll never win.

“It’s very similar in some ways. I was talking to my grandchildren a little while back and saying during the war, older people of my age will remember if you saw a queue outside a butcher’s shop for example, you’d join it, you wouldn’t have the foggiest what they’d sell, you’d join it and you might get a couple of sausages or a couple of pieces of meat.

Read more: Army of 80 volunteers ready to help town’s vulnerable“But that’s the sort of thing that happened. But you see these days it’s completely different because we have wonderful communications, we have a marvellous health service, and plenty of food of course, if people would only wait and wait for their share, as it were.”

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