ACTOR Robson Green got his first experience of cold water swimming with Talgarth woman Melanie Lewis and her wetsuit-free swimming group known as the ‘Bluetits’ during filming for ITV programme Coastal Lives recently.

Melanie, who is deputy sales manager at the Brecon and Radnor Express, described the experience of filming with Robson for the show as “an amazing surreal experience, one never to be forgotten”.

The programme aired on Tuesday (October 3) at 8pm and is still available to view on the ITV hub.

Melanie is part of the ‘Bluetits’ wetsuit-free swimming club based near St David’s in Pembrokeshire, who are a year-round open water swimming group.

Talking about how she got involved with the group, Melanie said: “Six years ago Sian Richardson, who lives at Pencarnan, near St David’s invited me to her New Year’s Day swim in the sea in Pembrokeshire.

“The thought of it scared me at the time. However I was brave enough to take the plunge and was amazed at how euphoric I felt afterwards and I have been cold water swimming ever since.”

Robson, who starred in TV drama series Soldier, Soldier and was half of the hit singing duo Robson & Jerome in the 1990s, wanted to experience cold water swimming with a group of like-minded swimmers and his team got in touch via the Bluetits Open Water Swimmers, Pembrokeshire Facebook page.

Melanie also filmed the encounter with Robson on her go-pro camera while in the water. Snippets of the video, which went on YouTube, were used in the programme on ITV. You can see Melanie's footage below.