IAN Thomas, a captivating speaker from Newton Abbot, enthralled the the town’s WI with stories of his diving adventures in the arctic and antarctic.

Ian’s talk, dubbed 'Diving in the Frozen Planet', detailed the former Devon & Cornwall Police officer’s time diving in sub-zero temperatures, working for a number of television companies.

Ian has dived off Greenland and Canada filming, even catching a sighting of a Bow Head Whale.

‘He jokingly told us about the time he woke with a start at 2am hearing a snuffling sound around his tent on the ice’, says Newton Abbot WI president Karen Jenks.

‘He stayed quietly inside, and the husky dogs started barking loudly to show there was a polar bear in the camp !

‘I cannot imagine what must have been going through his mind at that time’, Karen added.