The first time you visit New York...well, it sure doesn't feel like the first time.

Everywhere you look in the city - up, down, left, right - it's a serious case of deja vu. You've never set foot here but you just know these places...

From Robert De Niro cruising the mean streets of Manhattan in TAXI DRIVER...Murray, Aykroyd and Ramis as the GHOSTBUSTERS, tackling the spirits haunting the high-rises of Gotham...beauty killing the beast, as the tragic figure of KING KONG tumbles down from the top of the Empire State Building...

Grand Central Terminal. The Statue of Liberty. The Brooklyn Bridge. The Chrysler Building. Central Park.

All iconic, all instantly recognisable from books, movies and television. When you step out into the streets of Manhattan, it's like walking onto the biggest film set on the planet.

I bust my Big Apple cherry twenty years ago: March 1993. Five days and nights of sensory overload. It was, and still is, the most vibrant, exciting, alive city I've ever visited.



On the last night of the trip, there was an extra, surreal twist. Rosie (then girlfriend, now wife) and me stumbled across a proper big-budget Hollywood movie being shot on 42nd Street: Arnold Schwarzenegger's then upcoming comedy thriller LAST ACTION HERO.