The two-year-old was emulating a scene from his favourite TV show by dangling his foot down a drain in his back garden.

Seconds later the toddler's foot became trapped - and a team of real firefighters had to come to the rescue.

He had been playing the part of Norman Price, a mischief maker on the children's television programme who often finds himself in the odd scrape.

His mum, Catherine Foster, 33, of Islands Brow, said: "I had been hanging the washing out and we had both been round the back. I nipped into the house to get some more clothes when I heard him shouting, 'Mummy I'm Norman Price'!

"He went quiet for a second then screeched, 'action stations', which is what Fireman Sam says when he on his way to a rescue. I dashed outside and he was trying to pull his foot out of the drain.

"It was totally jammed and by this time he was starting to panic. I called my neighbour and we tried to hack the pipe off so we could free him but it was too thick."

She called the emergency services, but by this time the last thing Matthew wanted to see was a crew of firefighters.

Catherine, a nursery nurse, said: "We kept on trying to calm him down by saying the firemen are coming but that just made him cry more.

"They were brilliant with him though. They managed to cut the pipe and the surrounding plastic away and they had him out in no time.

"He's gone off firefighting now, he's into Kipper the dog at the moment!"

Phil Brammier, watch manager at Parr Stocks Road, said: "The poor little chap was in quite a bit of shock and had become really upset.

"We managed to free him in a matter of minutes, he was checked over by paramedics and he was fine."