Novelty tomato is just quackers

Is it a bird? Keen Black Country gardener John Owen isn't sure, but says he's certainly not seen a tomato like it in his life.

The perplexed pensioner discovered the bizarrely-shaped fruit growing in the greenhouse at his Brownhills home - and noticed a striking resemblance to TV duck puppet, Orville.

And just like the 80s sidekick to ventriloquist Keith Harris, whether it wants to fly right up to the sky or not, it can't.

The 70-year-old from Shannon Walk said the deformed tomato had given him plenty of laughs – and has even given it a pair of eyes. "I've not seen one like it before, that's for sure," he said.

"I've been gardening more than forty years, but this is definitely a first. I had to check I wasn't living next to a nuclear testing site."

It is not the first time John has hit the headlines for his green-fingered exploits.

In 2004 he became the proud owner of a pumpkin measuring a gargantuan 6ft – following what was his first ever attempt at growing one of traditional Halloween fruit.

Mr Owen said: "I'd never grown a pumpkin before. I always thought it would be possible although I was shocked at the size it grew to."