THE myth of the stuffy teacher has been lost forever thanks to a Worcester man's appearance on saucy new TV show Britain's Sexiest.

Ex-Nunnery Wood High School pupil Nicolas Lamorte chalked up a place in the final five on last night's ITV show.

Competing in his normal school wear and then clad in swimming shorts, the rugged 26-year-old strutted his stuff on the catwalk in front of ex-Eastender Michael Grecco, former Atomic Kitten Kerry Katona and hundreds of baying fans.

Hunky primary school teacher Nic was pipped to the post by martial arts instructor Morgan after half-an-hour of frantic public voting.

The keen sportsman, who grew up in Redhill, off Bath Road, and now teaches in Birmingham, played football for Pershore Town, Bromsgrove Rovers and Malvern Town.

According to his proud mum, Valerie, who works at Worcestershire Royal Hospital, his eyes and broad Worcester accent were his winning TV attributes.

"Nick saw an advert in the Times Educational Supplement to be a contestant on the show and for a bit of a dare he decided to go for it," said Mrs Lamorte.

The trendy teacher then had to audition in Birmingham to win over the judges before he was chosen to be among the last five.

"A couple of weeks later he said, 'Mum, I think I've done something awful', and the next week we had the TV cameras down," said Mrs Lamorte.

Around 12 people went down to support Nick in London, yesterday.