A TV audience of millions watched Paul Tanner receive a Pride of Britain award at a celebrity studded bash in London.

The former pupil at John Masefield High School in Ledbury, now a police inspector in London, was at the Hilton Hotel for the awards, broadcast on ITV1 on Tuesday.

He sat at a front table with Sir Paul McCartney, his model wife Heather Mills and pop star Ms Dynamite and was first up to receive his bravery award from Crimewatch presenter Fiona Bruce.

The policemen, known to his friends as Dan, said: "I've had my 15 minutes of fame! Paul McCartney was a very nice, down to earth bloke, very friendly and approachable."

Inspt Tanner, 34, was honoured for tackling a 6ft 4in tall schizophrenic knifeman who had seized a 16-year-old girl.

The police officer had just been stabbed in his chest and arm in an unprovoked attack outside Finsbury Park Police Station in London.

He took refuge on a bus, which started to pull away but he ordered it to stop when he saw the teenager grabbed.

Despite great pain, Inspector Tanner, a father-of-three, ran from the bus and distracted the knifeman in a deadly game of cat a mouse.

Eventually three more officers arrived and arrested the offender, who was later sentenced to life imprisonment.

Mr Tanner's parents, Mike and Lynn, who still live in Ledbury, actually sat on a table with the teenage girl their son had rescued. Mr Tanner said: "Everyone was in tears. We are very proud of him."