Sorry, while I assume he was just confused and the sun had nothing to do with it. His story is not wrong. The reality is that sunset there is currently about 4:30. The sun is quite low at 2:45. In January the sun does not get up very high in England. England is about equal to the lower Hudson Bay in Canada. Much farther north than any spot in the 48 contiguous states of America.
Sun starts coming up 3-4 am in summer.