Shrewsbury river hero experiences 'once in a lifetime' Platinum Jubilee concert by royal appointment

Will Mowbray and his girlfriend Molly Marr, were awarded the tickets by the Lord Lieutenant of Shropshire, Anna Turner, after she heard of Will's heroics.

The 21-year-old University Centre Shrewsbury student saved father-of-one Dan Walker, after he got in to difficulty in the river near the English Bridge in Shrewsbury.

Now, Will and his girlfriend – who also played a significant role in the rescue – have experienced a 'once in a lifetime' opportunity at Buckingham Palace last night for the Platinum Jubilee Concert.

Will said: "It was amazing. It was really fantastic. There were so many famous faces and we were 10 metres away from the front, from Stephen Fry, Prince Charles and Camilla.

"It was a massively, massively exciting thing and it was really interactive because everyone was given LED bracelets. It was really funny as well, lots of crowd interactions and a beach ball was passed around."

He said that being a rock fan, his favourite performance was probably Queen and Adam Lambert, who opened the concert last night which was broadcast across the nation.

Will said that when they both arrived at the concert, the mall was quite empty, but within a couple of hours there were tens of thousands of people behind them – they could not see where the line ended.

"I'd personally never seen Buckingham Palace before," he said. "And I have certainly never experienced it on this level."

"I am so grateful because it was a once in a lifetime experience. The only thing I can associate it with is a tightly packed music festival," he added.

A number of celebrities and music icons performed at the Platinum Jubilee Concert last night, including Lee Mack, Stephen Fry, Diana Ross, Hans Zimmer, Andrea Bocelli, Elton John and Duran Duran.

The Platinum Party at the Palace is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.