In May 1999 I got a call from the Sun‘s northern reporter, as I was working that weekend, and basically I needed to get down to York that Saturday because they were planning a stakeout of the comedian Lenny Henry.

Having said that it meant I could stop in the hotel next to York station, where he was staying after his gig, and enjoy the comedian’s show that night.

The Sun had a team of photographers and reporters there who were watching his every move.

It turned out the paper had got a tip off that he was meeting a mystery blonde and, right on cue, she turned up. And they managed to corroborate that the two had indeed met up in his hotel room.

Luckily I was not on the overnight watch but I did have to be in position watching the exits by 6am the following morning.

I took up a position at the corner of the railway station which meant I could observe the main entrance, as well as the other exit, so I prepared myself for a long wait.

My chosen kit consisted of a Nikon camera body and a 300mm f2.8 lens, which was a heavy piece of glass, because of the distance to the main entrance.

It was not too long before I spotted the woman in question out of the corner of my eye, Merri Cheyne, walking away from the other exit and not the main entrance.

Now, because we were not supposed to be seen by either party so as not to not compromise the story, I had to be discrete, so I got one or two shots of her and luckily she was oblivious to my presence.

The resulting photo was not technically perfect, because it had to betaken quickly and it was a grabbed shot, but you can still recognise her. In the trade we refer to such photos as snatch shots because they are literally snatched quite quickly.

And a short while later Lenny Henry emerged from the main entrance and I grabbed a shot of him leaving. Again it was not technically perfect, because of the distance, but at least you can tell it is him.

When I got back to the office I processed the film and sent the best shots to The Sun but, after that, I had to keep quiet about the story while the paper entered into discussions with the various parties ahead of publication for at least a couple of weeks.

Eventually The Sun splashed it across five pages and they even used my grabbed shot of Lenny Henry and, as I understand, they did a deal with the Daily Mail which also used the same shot the following day.

COVERAGE… The Sun on Monday, May 24, 1999 and the Daily Mail on Tuesday, May 25, 1999…