Articles/Interviews

* OLIVER REED squinted at me through the bright and very early morning sunshine on the set of Michael Winner's The Big Sleep.

He unbuttoned his grey waistcoat, loosened his pink shirt around the collar and stretched out, waiting for his next confrontation with Robert Mitchum.

"About the possibility of you becoming a tax exile," I ventured.

Oliver reacted angrily. "Look, I'm still a resident in England. The answer to that is no, no, no, I'm not going to become a tax exile. That's a load of rubbishy propaganda by left wing newspapers. I would never desert. Propaganda. I'm loyal to this country."

"About your public image as a hellraiser," I began again.

The anger still hovered in his voice.

"If I went round constanty kissing babies in prams, saying I believe in the church and doing good, the public wouldn't be interested. That's not what the public expect from Oliver Reed. They want him to fall off the edge of a dustbin, get into fights and get drunk. Do all the things you read in the papers.

"Whether I actually do them or not is another matter"

"But what about all these headlines we read about," I said.

"I don't give a ... about what appears in the papers. The police make my headlines because the police arrest me. In fact, I'm deeply indebted to the police forces of the world for having made me into this kind of monster." The first flicker of a smile crossed his face. "They've served me quite well, really."

"Well then, about your feud with Raquel Welch?" I went on.

"Manufactured, absolutely! The Press again. They want to see me bite the dog. Raquel and I get on very well. In actual I fact I love her a little and I think she loves me quite a lot. We get on fine."

"Would she be the most beautiful woman you've ever met?"

He gave a big smile for the first time. "The most beautiful woman I've ever met is the last one I made love to."

I began to feel better, even relaxed. So I sensed, did he. It seemed unlikely that a man with such a riotous past behind him - and with the scars to prove it - would be frightened of anything but it was worth a try.

"Physically no," he replied, "although people have shot at me a few times, both here and abroad. I was quite frightened about that. As an actor the thought that I would never get another job frightens me. Unless I can continue to act I would have to leave my lovely house in Surrey. And I don't want to do that. I want to secure its place in our society because so much Victorian architecture has been destroyed. That's something I care about deeply."