TV SUPERSTAR Ross Kemp was greeted by a big queue of admirers when he arrived in Basingstoke to sign his new book.

Fans of all ages, and from far and wide, turned out to meet the former soap-star-turned-award-winning documentary maker in Festival Place.

His universal appeal was self-evident in the broad range of fans who queued in Porchester Square, waiting for Mr Kemp to sign copies of his new book Warriors: British Fighting Heroes.

The book is Mr Kemp’s tribute to some of the remarkable men and women who served in the British Armed Forces during the First and Second World Wars and gives accounts of their heroic exploits.

Since leaving BBC soap EastEnders, Mr Kemp has met, and been filmed with, some of the world’s most dangerous gangsters.

He has also been stationed with the British Army in Afghanistan’s Helmand province witnessing the conflict and the bravery of British servicemen and women first hand.

First in line to meet him were the Doolan family, who travelled from Marlow in Buckinghamshire.

Yvonne Doolan drove with her children Shannon, 14, Portia, 11 – who are also both fans of Mr Kemp – as well as Drew, three, and Millie, two, to meet her hero. They arrived at 9.30am to make sure they were first in the queue when he arrived just after 1pm.

Mrs Doolan, 33, said: “I have always absolutely loved him from EastEnders and all his programmes.

“He’s really brave, and good-looking! Whenever my husband sees him on the TV he says ‘your boyfriend’s on the TV’.”

Also near the front of the queue were 17-year-old Ashley Connock, from Thatcham, who plans to join the Army when he turns 18, and 71-year-old Sylvia Tubby, of Grove Close, in Black Dam, Basingstoke.

Mrs Tubby, who joined the queue around 11am, said: “I think he’s great. I used to watch him in EastEnders and was upset when he left.”