My trek to see the man himself, began early on the morning of Monday, 7th September in the smoking compartment, (the ‘heavily’ smoking compartment), of a train from Rugby to London. My frayed nerves were not helped with someone throwing himself on the line and delaying my journey by 40 minutes. Some people have no thought for others!!!!

Finally getting to Leicester Square in London at around two o’clock, only a small group had arrived so far, no barriers had been erected and street entertainers were trying everything they could to attract the crowd’s attention. I took notes and thought about what I could use later on in an attempt to attract Tom and Maeve.

At 3:30 the barriers began going up. I was running out of cigarettes, nervous as Hell and preparing myself for the disappointment of having the two people, I had come all this way to see, walk straight past me. “I have to give it a try,” I kept telling myself, in a self-defeatist, Disney movie kind of way.

I spent the waiting time talking to a South African girl who’d been over in London for a year. She soon bored me and it wasn’t long before I wanted her to go away! On my other side was a woman of about fifty, with a voice only the Queen could mimic, and her young daughter who deserved a good kick! “Oh Mummy, can we get an autograph, can we please Mummy, Oh can we Mummy, can we?” How I refrained from writing ‘BRAT’ on her forehead with black marker pen, I’ll never know!

At about 6:15 the first of the guests began arriving. I was really impressed to see that a selection of veterans had been invited to the showing, somehow it all made it even more real. Every so often people would walk down past the crowd and into the theatre. I presumed that many of these would have been people who worked on the filming in England.

The first celebrities arriving being Paul Freeman (‘Shanghai Surprise’), newsreader Alistair Stewart, Tom Conti, Dexter Fletcher and John Hurt. The little ‘princess’ next to me continued to annoy with her outbursts of ‘Mummy, ask the man, (me), if that lady’s famous.” If all else failed I would just have to pick the brat up and wave her by the leg. That would attract attention…..but also the police probably!

Ed Burns was the first of the ‘Saving Private Ryan’ stars to arrive, and, to the disappointment of the crowd, he simply posed for newspaper photographs and wandered straight into the theatre. This sent my heartbeat skywards. Have all the stars from the film been told to do a photocall and then go straight in? OH GOD! Tom, please don’t do that!

It must have been just after Seven o’clock when, I think, two cars turned up at once. Out of one of them stepped Maeve, looking amazing in a really cool patterned green dress with shoulder straps. I then saw Tom climbing out of the car and heading straight for the crowds. He was dressed in a black suit and dark patterned tie. I know I can be totally unbiased, (I can be unbiased, I can, I can!), when I say he and Maeve were the best-dressed couple there. They both looked stunning.

Just along from where I was standing was a group of extremely loud fans that had managed to attract Tom’s attention. Seeing this I let out the most almighty ‘Tarzan-like’ roar, (well, I thought it was a roar!), screaming out ‘Maeve’ at the top of my voice. After two attempts Maeve saw me and came over! Even if I couldn’t see Tom I still wanted to say hello to Maeve again. In New York she had been really easy-going and brilliant to chat with.

Kids, she was amazing! Maeve is a really lovely, genuine person anyway, but for her to actually recognise me was like the greatest thing EVER! I was all ready to plow into the ‘you won’t remember me, but we met in New York’ speech I’d been working on all weekend, and she just walked up and started talking to me. That alone would have been enough to make this small-town boy go home in absolute rapture. I gave her a card I’d written and that, at the end of the day, was what I wanted to do.

Maeve then did the kindest thing that anyone has ever done for me….ever. She pulled Tom over and said to him, “you remember Jeremy? We met him in New York.” It was something like that. Tom Sizemore was standing in front of me, you understand? Would you remember exact words?

He took one look at me, gave me a broad grin of recognition and put his arms around me in a huge hug. I think I held on to him too. Was I physically removed? Probably!! I was just so thrilled that this man, to whom I am nothing and yet who is nothing less than an icon to me was so genuine and pleased to see me. I guess I’m too cynical but, as I said once before, things like this don’t happen to me. It was undoubtedly the most incredible moment of my entire life.

Tom pulled away, (either that or called for help and I was dragged off!), looked at me and told me to stop shaking.

“I can’t!” I told him.

“I’m only a normal person.” He told me.

“You’re not, you’re my God!” I told him. I then immediately felt like a mad stalker, with one eye, and a bizarre obsession with snakes. Which I’m not. Honestly!!!!

Billy, Maeve and Tom's friend, took my camera and we posed for a photo. Because my arm swung into shot, (involuntarily…I have a twitch! I’m joking, I’m joking!), Maeve told Billy to take another photo, (Maeve Quinlan is a fabulous, fabulous person), which he did, before having to rush Tom and Maeve through to the theatre.

“I just wanna sign this guy’s stuff.” Tom told him, (Thank you for taking the photos, Billy, by the way! You totally ROCK!). He signed a picture and a magazine I’d taken along and the world’s coolest couple then went through into the theatre.

I’m afraid I let you all down with the rest of the article, kids. After meeting Tom and Maeve I kind of had to rush to the nearest telephone. I managed to get halfway through telling my best friend to meet me in Leicester Square park before bursting into tears. I then phoned my mother and was so incoherent she thought I’d been attacked!

What Tom and Maeve did for me was so sincere, so selfless and so much more than I could have ever dreamt of, that it will stay with me my entire life. Anyone who has never been a fan of anything or anyone won’t understand, but to me this was everything.

Tom and Maeve: Thank you. I love you both so much. You have given me so much and I can offer you nothing in return except my loyalty and my best wishes in everything you both do.