FORMER para turned military advisor Paul Biddiss is recruiting men to recreate the Battle of Waterloo for a major new TV costume drama.

The veteran, who lives near Swindon, is running a boot camp in October for hopefuls with the aim of training 300 people for the scenes that will be filmed in three locations near Swindon and Reading.

He will be training them in the drill and tactics used by the British Army in 1815, which means they will be learning how to form squares and how to march at the right pace.

They will also be trained in bayonet use and how foot soldiers of the time would have reacted to cavalry charges.

“It will be a good thing because there are some up and coming even bigger projects involving the Napoleonic Wars,” he added.

Paul, who spent 24 years in the Parachute Regiment, with his last posting to the parachute school at RAF Brize Norton, got his break a few years ago when he was working as an extra in the Monuments Men.

“All I did was offer some advice to George Clooney,” he said.

He piped up when he spotted a tactical error looming in a scene about to be shot involving soldiers approaching an unknown vehicle four days after the D Day landings.

“Extras are not supposed to be heard, they are there to be seen. I just said: ‘Can I make a suggestion?’”

He then explained why the soldiers would not have approached it so confidently as the actors were.

The film’s military adviser, ex-Royal Marine Billy Budd, liked what he heard and as a result Paul found himself being consulted for his own military expertise on more films including Fury, where he worked with Brad Pitt.

Much of his recent work has been period drama involving the Napoleonic Wars and he has done his research.

But he told the Advertiser: “Soldiers all react the same regardless of what nationality or what era they are.”

His job means getting extras not only to look like soldiers, but to know how to behave like them. “It makes them look more realistic.”

Getting it 100 per cent right was almost impossible “but I’m on hand to try and make it as realistic as possible.”

Recent jobs include the Kingsman sequel where he was the armourer, Justice League, Vanity Fair, Transformers: The Last Knight and The Death of Stalin.

The veteran of Northern Ireland and Kosovo also worked on last year’s hit mini-series War and Peace where, with the help of a translator, he trained Lithuanians to act like French and Russian soldiers.

Men aged roughly between 17 and 35 who are prepared to go through the five day paid boot camp and then go straight into filming on October 7, can attend open casting sessions on Friday between 2.30 and 7.30pm and on Saturday from 11.30am to 3.30pm at the Madejski Hotel in Reading.

They need to be over 16, eligible for work in the UK and have photo ID.