Listen to Alan Franks talk about interviewing the famous

1. Get plenty of stuff in the can before you ask the tricky questions

In other words, don’t kick off your conversation with world-famous philanthropist Blanco Checki by saying: “Now then, about the embezzling.” The other day I thought I was coming unstuck with Lenny Henry because there I was asking him about some deep trouble he’d been in – depression, the Priory, tabloid storm over an alleged fling in a hotel, and we were barely ten minutes into the interview. We hadn’t even covered Tiswas or The Black and White Minstrel Show. But it was he, not me, who had raised the difficult issues, which is why you should…

2. Go along with what they want to talk about. For a little while anyway

That is when they are likely to be at their most fluent. You never know where it might go. At some time, the chances are that you are going to have to discuss their latest film, book, album, fragrance, claim, apology, recipe, rehab programme or riverside development. Fair enough. That’s generally the deal. I wouldn’t just happen to find myself on a Hollywood studio rooftop chatting to billionaire songsmith and former Beatle Paul McCartney unless he were trying to push the photo book of his world tour. But then there’s nothing to stop you asking him, as I did, about love, loss, life after Linda, and Heather. He was still with her at the time, still had a photo of her on the side of his sandwich box. I am often surprised at how few rules there are in encounters like this, and so there’s no excuse not to…

3. Ask the questions which you feel others would most want to ask

If it’s a privilege to meet these famous people – not always the case; it can sometimes be a real pain – then it’s probably a bit of a responsibility as well. So make sure you have some sense of what these questions are, even if they are away from your own sphere of curiosity. Staying with Macca , who is after all as big as a star can get: I found myself asking him if he and Heather were going to have any more children. The moment the question left my mouth, it felt like a transgression. Not surprising really, because according to most codes of conduct with strangers, that’s exactly what it was. Some would say bloody cheek. He didn’t like it, any more than I would, but he took it manfully and said “No comment.” There was a bit of a silence and then he said: “Listen, if we were just guys, y’know, then…” Which of course we weren’t. I seem to remember Arthur Miller saying something similar when I asked him about his ex-wife Marilyn Monroe. The point about all this is that you have the right to ask such questions, and they have the right not to answer them. You never know which way it is going to go, which is why you should always…

4. Have the next question in you head, ready to go. And the one after that

Silence is not good. Apart from consuming valuable time, it makes the interviewee think things are going badly, which they probably are. It is a surprisingly short distance from here to wariness and evasion. If I hadn’t got a few questions up my sleeve for Brian Wilson, the damaged genius of The Beach Boys, the interview might have come to an end in about thirty seconds. I had asked him how the America of the 1960s compared with that of the present day. It seemed a fair loosener, but he obviously didn’t think so because he looked in panic towards his minder and said “Next question please.” So I quickly asked him what his favourite Beach Boys track was. It was a lucky shot, and engaged his attention. “Californian Girls,” he answered, and suddenly went garrulous for several minutes. I’d been warned that he could become very absent, and might even take this on to the level of leaving the room. In due course he did. At least I knew roughly what to expect. But most of the time it’s wise to…

5. Expect them to be different from what you'd expected

Most very famous people have a fictional version of themselves. (Notable exceptions include the impeccable David Attenborough). It lives a parallel life and is assembled from a variety of sources – cuttings, Wikipaedia, blogs, hearsay, rumour, truth, rubbish. Like throwing coloured dough at a tailor’s dummy. It makes me think that serious celebrity has something in common with medieval notions about the duality of monarchy. This sounds horribly pseudy but I’m sticking with it. There is the public presence, which is massive, overblown, institutionalised. And there is the occupant of that mighty office, small, fallible and mortal. So, while it is important to do your homework and have plenty of ammunition, you should also let yourself

6. Put preconceptions aside and judge them for yourself

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