The WWII prisoner who became a panto dame... and then hated it: Photos show British PoW performing in drag at German camp - but he feared becoming 'typecast' and threatened to go on strike

The remarkable war diaries of a British prisoner of war who became an unlikely star attraction in camp as a panto dame have come to light 79 years on. Captain John Dixon was captured at Dunkirk and spent the whole of the Second World War in a PoW camp. Above: Captain John Dixon dressed as a woman in one performance Captain John Dixon erforming in a play called The Case of the Frightened Lady at Oflag VIIB in Bavaria He wrote: 'I am rehearsing in I Killed the Count and Michael Goodliffe has asked me to play Ophelia in Hamlet in future, but I am very diffident about. Captain John Dixon was captured at Dunkirk and spent the whole of the Second World War in a PoW camp Captain Dixon, seen front row, second from right with other inmates wearing a bra and tutu for a Christmas pantomime performance Captain Dixon dressed as a woman while performing in camp play the Maori Review John Dixon in a production of Alec Coppel's 1937 play I Killed the Count at the German prisoner of war camp Captain John Dixon peforming as a lady in one of the productions She contacted military historian Paul Johnson, who has spent a decade transcribing them for a new book, Behind the Wire: The Road to Oflag VII-B Eichstätt. The soldier was imprisoned for nearly all of the Second World War Captain John Dixon and with his wife Leokadia Maria Dixon 'During his incarceration, Dixon immersed himself in his love of the theatre.