I first met Rene on my first day at Davenant foundation school. His brother Elliott and his friend Nathan Warener (not sure of the spelling) were in my sister's year two years above us. They were hard and seen as trouble makers, but in that way that makes the girls swoon. Nathan had these pale water blue eyes that always shone out, and he wore a silver grey jumper instead of the 'regulation' charcoal grey (I had noticed him at the school concerts I had gone to to support my sister) and when I found out that Rene was a link between these two it made me both wary and exited.

I was not the most [popular kid in the year by a long shot. If not always the last to be picked for teams I was always with the last few. So daring to talk to Rene was a big deal. He started off in Mr Payne's form, the same as me, but after the first half term there he was moved to Mrs Wyre's form (at the time Mrs Powell or powers or something). He and his friend Ben Keen (I wonder if he still sees him) soon became inseparable. As most lads do, when they were together there wasn't really much point in engaging them. Then Rene was put in my set for English, and we were sat in alphabetical order. He was a Z, I was a Wi. We ended up sitting next to each other, and I soon learned a deep respect for him. We used to swap poems in class. We both read at the poetry evenings. Around this time things changed for me. People stopped being so nasty, and both Rene and Ben would talk to me as if I were a person worth talking to, instead of just worth laughing at. He gave me a confidence I couldn't have dreamed of, and then everyone else started to back off. When he brought the tape of the wet wet wet video he was in into school, a lot of people were getting board of its regular showing in my form room, the junior biology lab (JBL) but I watched it loads of times even though I have always and still do hate the band and song. He was just so happy. It wasn't long after that that he stopped going to our school, and one time when I asked Ben where he was while he was working at the local record shop I found out that he had gone to Italia Conti. We had talked about how we both wanted to go into the business, and I knew there was no way my parents would let me, but I was so happy for him. I didn't think I'd ever see him again, but after moving to Leytonstone I would sometimes bump into him by the tube station, and he never ignored me, never. Always stopped and had a chat. My biggest regret is that I never thanked him. I'm sorry to say, I wasn't allowed to watch Grange hill because my dad had been an on set social worker for the kids at one time and didn't like them. Then I was flicking channels and flicked passed The Bill. And would you believe it, there he was. I didn't watch much of it, because I can't watch something just because of a cast member. I also won't not watch one because of a cast member, but as a result I didn't see much of him. I know he didn't smile a lot. This is a guy who when he smiles the rain stops and there are rainbows. And he can act. I vote for Rene to take over when David Tenant quits Dr Who. Not that there's anything wrong with him, but I think Rene could do the show proud.

...and I live in hope that in some small part of his mind he's connected the wreck of the girl I was with the women in the NASA suit and that he somehow knows how grateful I am to him.

All the very best Rene... it is well deserved.