A Place In The Sun star feared scary car crash would be his last show | TV & Radio | Showbiz & TV

A Place In The Sun's Craig Rowe has told the chilling story of a “terrifying” and “harrowing” car breakdown that happened while he was navigating rural Greece using his phone's maps app.

The popular presenter has returned for a new season of Channel 4's popular property programme, but Craig confessed that he once thought one particular filming experience might be his last after his vehicle became stuck on a slope in a remote village, leading to a dramatic rescue operation by local police and firefighters.

Speaking exclusively to the Mirror, Craig recalled: “Last year I picked up a car at the airport in Crete, just a small, basic car, it didn't have much power – to say it had the power of a sewing machine would probably be an exaggeration.”

“Anyway, I picked up this car. Obviously I would have taken a different car, but I got there so late that I had to take the car that was available. The reason I would have taken a different car is not because I want to be fancy, but because some of the roads are really, really bad and there's a lot of loose gravel. They're mountain roads. When you come up from the beach and go inland, they're basically mountain roads and you need a good car!

“Anyway, I was on my way to a property, I wanted to meet the team there to do the filming. I followed maps [on my phone]what I want to warn people about when they're on an island, because in the remote parts of the island sometimes the map just doesn't get it right. Anyway, the map told me to go left, then it told me to go right. You know when you're driving down a road and you think, “This doesn't feel right!” but I thought I trusted the map.

“Anyway, it eventually took me onto a sort of residential street and then I drove onto a really steep slope. It told me to turn right, but to the right was basically a landslide pile on top of all this coal, it was basically a dead end. The map basically told me to drive into this huge pile of coal and lumber and all this stuff.

“Then I put the car in reverse to go down the hill, but when I put it in reverse, there was no stopping the car, it skidded and I slid down this gravel hill. The brakes didn't work, the handbrake, by the grace of God I then managed to turn the steering wheel so the car ended up on this ledge next to a garage, but when it turned onto the ledge it basically stayed on the beach.

“I had to balance between an edge and a slope. Every time I tried to do something in the car – the acceleration – nothing happened. Every time I tried to apply the brakes, the car rocked, and if I moved from the car seat, because my weight was holding it upright, if I moved from the car, the car would roll down the hill and I could have rolled down with it.

“I was stuck in this damn car in the middle of this village in remote Crete! All these people came out and they were shouting at me in Greek, which I don't speak. I just thought, 'I don't understand this!' In the end, someone called someone from another village who could speak English. She said, 'They're not shouting at you, they're worried about you. They're afraid you're going to roll down the hill!'

“This lady, who could speak English, then called the police. The police came but couldn't do anything, so the firemen came. The first thing they did was hold the car and pull me out. They said, 'It's amazing it didn't roll down the hill with you in it.' Because if you made one wrong move, it would have rolled backwards!”

Craig added gratefully, “They got me out safe and sound,” adding that the rental car company picked up the vehicle after securing the car. Craig recalls the experience, “It was pretty horrific. It took about four hours, the schedule for the day was completely messed up!”

“What an experience, it was really terrifying because when I rolled down the hill I had no control of the car – the brakes didn't work, the handbrake didn't work, I just slid down the hill. I thought 'Oh my God, is this going to be my last episode?' Now you look back and laugh but at the time it was really terrifying,” he added: “It was horrific but that's how it is, I lived to tell the story!”

The new season of A Place In The Sun can be seen weekdays at 4pm on Channel 4.