jeremy irvine who plays a young lomax. colin firth who plays the older lomax. and patti lomax, the wife of eric lomax, who is also the center of this story. i'm pleased to have them at this table. welcome. >> thank you. >> this is a love story. it really is. what a great -- tell us about the meeting when you first met eric lomax. >> well, excuse me, it was a coincidence because eric was hoping to catch another train that he missed. >> this is about what year? >> 1980. he caught my train and we met. i was on holiday traveling from the south of england to scotland. eric was very interesting, telling me about the history of the various towns. he had the most marvelous eyes. he obviously didn't take much care of himself, but he was a most interesting person. >> you had some correspondence and then got together? >> no. we met as in the film. a few tweaks here and there. then, we parted for some time. i rejoined him about a year later. >> very good. he was suffering a lot from posttraumatic stress disorder. >> yes, he was. >> because of the experience he had had. is

good morning, america. >> good morning, america. >>> colin firth and jeremy irvine, star in "the railwaylater, he sets out to confront his tormentor. thanks for being with us. >> thank you. >> we were talking earlier. colin, this is a chapter in history that people are completely unaware of. myself included. as i watched the movie, i was moved to think i had never heard about this man, eric lomax, or what so many soldiers went through. did you have the same experience? >> i didn't know very much about it at all. it seems strangely left out of our -- not only curriculum in the schools. but out of film lore. you know, we have countless films about the second world war. but very little about what is taking place there. and given the scale of it and the number of people who died. >> and they actually called this the death railway. some people said for every railway tie laid, a man died. i want to look at the clip. you play the younger and older versions of this man. and this is at the point where eric realizes what he is facing, in terms of the terrible task ahead of him. let's take a look.

some time, the hating has to stop. >> joining me is jonathan teplitzky, the director jeremy irvine who plays lomax, colin firth who plays the older lomax and pat pat, the wife of eric lomax, who is also the center of the story. i am pleased to have them at this table. welcome. >> thank you. >> charlie: this is a love story. >> it is. >> charlie: it really is. tell us about the meeting when you first met eric lomax. >> ah, well -- excuse me. it was a coincidence. >> charlie: yes. because eric was actually hoping to catch another train which he missed. >> charlie: what year? 1918. >> charlie: okay. and he caught my train, and we met. i was on holiday traveling from the south of england to scotland to visit friends, and eric was very interesting, telling me about the history of all the various towns as we went through, and he had the most marvelous eyes. very cocky man, but he obviously didn't take very good care of himself, but he was a most interesting person. >> charlie: and you got together and -- >> no. we met, as in the film, eventually, with a few tweaks here and there, and then we