Video: Actor Martin Shaw in search of the Dambusters

But this week the star of TV dramas The Professionals and Judge John Deed will take to the skies over Yorkshire in a personal mission to uncover the true story behind one of the RAF's finest hours.

Shaw, a vintage plane enthusiast who has held a pilot's licence for nearly 20 years, will take his seat in the cockpit of a twin-prop Piper Navajo alongside one of Britain's leading fighter pilots for a documentary recreating the RAF's legendary wartime Dambusters raids.

Shaw and Wing Commander Chris Norton will make a series of flights over the Peak District, where 617 Squadron practised their "bouncing bomb" runs before embarking on the mission to destroy German dams during the Second World War.

They will then go on to trace the squadron's original route from RAF Scampton, in Lincolnshire, to the Ruhr Valley in Germany, using 1940s navigation methods and with special dispensation from the Civil Aviation Authority to fly at the same ultra-low level used by the Lancaster bombers.

Shaw said: "I've been interested in aeroplanes and flying since I was five years old, and I've held my pilot's licence for about 18 years.

"I don't have a commercial licence, however, so I will only be the navigator. I say 'only', but it will be incredibly difficult navigating at low level, with just a map and compass."

As one of Britain's top fighter pilots over the past 15 years, Wing Commander Norton is more used to leading RAF squadrons across the mountainous terrain of Kosovo and the wide desert plains of Iraq than swooping over the picturesque Derwent Valley.

But together he and TV star Shaw will use modern GPS technology to test the accuracy of the wooden bomb-sights used by 617 Squadron to drop the bouncing bombs more than 60 years ago.

On arrival in Germany, the pair will fly over the famous Mhne dam, before meeting a German survivor of the original raids. BBC producers behind the documentary are promising a wealth of new information will be laid bare for viewers later this year.

The BBC's executive producer, Ian Cundall, said: "The amazing story of the Dambusters has been told many times, especially in the famous movie, but in this documentary we think we have come up with some exciting new evidence that reveals secrets which have remained hidden for the last 67 years.

"Wartime censorship and a desire to protect what at the time was a wonder-weapon led to many aspects of the raid being hushed up. When modern viewers find out what really happened, we believe the raid will be seen as even more extraordinary"

The Dambusters raids took place in on May 16 and 17, 1943, with the squadron successfully flooding the Ruhr valley by attacking the Mhne and Eder dams with the their bouncing bombs.

"It sort of typifies the kind of lateral approach of the British, " Shaw said. "Instead of bombing everything to pieces, why not flood it? Why not drop a few bombs and let the water do the damage? It's a wonderfully lateral way of thinking about it. And then to have to invent and create a bomb that would bounce across the water – it's just an extraordinary, out-of-the box idea."

The mission has been immortalised in popular memory by the famous film of 1955, but the BBC production team behind the new documentary clearly believe the reality may have been somewhat different.

Mr Cundall said: "Only by recreating this hugely important moment in wartime history can we fully understand the courage and skill of the airmen who carried it out. For too long their exploits have been lost in a fog of myth and half-truth."

The programme will be broadcast regionally this autumn on BBC One and later nationally on BBC Two.