Tony Robinson had a near-death experience while filming his latest show when a tomb began to flood.

Tony Robinson

Tony Robinson

The 71-year-old actor almost drowned while shooting scenes for 'Tony Robinson Tomb Hunters' in a 3,000-year-old repository in Egypt when a pump failed and the water level inside the structure started to "rise quickly", putting him in potential danger.

A production source said: "The pumps had to take thousands of gallons of water out of the tomb before Tony and the team could enter it.

"They were inside doing some filming when the pumps failed and the water level started to rise quickly."

Filming on the show was stopped as a result, but fortunately, someone managed to fix the pump.

The source added to Sun's Bizarre TV column: "For a short while, it was looking really hairy and filming had to be stopped. But, luckily, someone was on hand to get the pumps running again."

The two-part Channel 5 show, which will air next month, sees the 'Blackadder' star go into previously unopened tomb ST42 with archaeologist John Ward.

Tony's near-death experience comes after a so-called curse was put on any person who disturbs the mummy of an Ancient Egyptian person, especially a pharaoh, to bring bad luck, illness or death.

In 1922, Howard Carter's team opened the tomb of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun. Shortly afterwards, a number of his team and some visitors to the tomb died.

While Howard passed away well over a decade after opening the repository, some still attribute his death to the curse.