And now, for the second installment of our interview with Justin Lee Collins, presenter of 'Bring Back Star Wars'...

JN: What would you say was your favourite part of the show?

JLC: My favourite part of this particular show?  That's really easy and obviously if I haven't said it already, and I probably have waffling on and given the game away, but it was getting to meet up with Carrie Fisher.  Of course I've already mentioned it....I told you she gave me the Ewok soap. [laughs]  That for me, was my personal highlight of the film, was meeting Carrie Fisher. I love her to bits and absolutely fell in love with her, and I still would [laughs].

JN: Are you happy for me to quote you on that, even if your wife is going to read this?

JLC: She's Princess Leia Adam!  I don't know whether she's still got the bikini; did I ask?  I probably did knowing me, but we went to her home and she basically, after some debate and certain things going on off camera, she allowed me into her home.  She's got this beautiful old house in Hollywood, which used to owned by Bette Davis. Her Mum, Debbie Reynolds lives next door, and that was the highlight of the film for me, and for whatever reason, we just clicked and seemed to get on and I completely fell in love with her.  I think she's wonderful, so that was my personal highlight.  Also, I would say as a close second, meeting Anthony Daniels, after hearing an awful lot about him from the other cast members, and I would say look out for the Anthony Daniels interview in 'Bring Back Star Wars', because it's quite something.  I'm saying very little and Anthony Daniels is doing the vast majority of the talking and it's quite something to hear, it really is.

JN: I can imagine.  He’s very talkative, but highly entertaining and he seems to have finally found a comfortable place within the Star Wars universe. We met up with him at Memorabilia in March and just asked him to wish Jedi News a happy 1st birthday because the site's been online for a year, having launched in 2007, on May 4th, the unofficial Star Wars day, and he did end up saying quite a bit, which was great.  OK, so what would you say was your worst part of the show?

JLC: The worst part?  Again, that's really easy for me to answer as well, but I don't want to give too much away, but it was the quest for Mark Hamill.  It was trying to track down and get Mark Hamill to agree to be part of this film.  That was without a doubt the hardest part of this show.  When we set off on this journey, when we boarded that plane to fly to America, we went to L.A., New York State and Manhattan, all over the place shooting this, you always have an idea, but you never know absolutely for sure who we're going to manage to actually get.  There's always a great deal of doubt, certainly always regarding one or two individuals, and I don't mind confirming that we didn't get Harrison Ford, but do you know what Adam, we knew we weren't going to get Harrison Ford, it was almost a no-brainer, but do you know what?  Have you ever seen Harrison Ford in an interview? He's rubbish!  It's not a big deal, not a great loss, because I've seen him interviewed, I've never interviewed him, but I've seen him interviewed lots of times over the years, and he doesn't really want to be there and you can tell that he doesn't enjoy giving interviews, he doesn't really have much to say, and I can imagine the last thing, even if you get Harrison Ford for an interview, the last thing that Harrison Ford wants to talk about is Han Solo and being in Star Wars.  So we knew we weren't going to get him, but don't get me wrong, I still go after him, and I managed to track down where he lives.  I went to his house, I talked to his maid, I was given a number and made various phone-calls.  I did everything I could to try to get him but I pretty much knew that there was absolutely no chance.  Mark Hamill, we weren't quite so sure, and that's really the focus of the film, my quest for Mark Hamill and that was incredibly hard and ultimately the most disappointing element of the film.

JN: That's understandable, and so it had nothing to do with dressing up as Jabba the Hutt?  You had no problem doing that?

JLC: Me as Jabba?  The point is with Jabba, and I'm not saying I'm proud of this, but I don't really need to dress up!  We just got a model, a Princess Leia lookalike to turn up in the bikini, and I was just led there in my underpants!

JN: I see you didn't remove your trainers!

JLC: I kept my trainers on; always keep your trainers on!

JN: I shall bear that in mind if I'm ever in that position! Next question Justin, which of the cast did you find was the most fun to work with?  You mentioned a number of people already, but who would you say is the most fun?

JLC: Well Carrie Fisher is great for all the reasons I mentioned earlier. But, do you know what, the most fun I would have to say was Warwick Davis. Have you ever met Warwick?

JN: Yes a couple of times.

JLC: He is the loveliest man.

JN: Absolutely.

JLC: It was like doing a "this is your life". He has absolutely no idea, of course, that we were coming. He knew me, which is kind of a nice thing. When he saw me, he recognised me from other Bring Backs, which was a nice thing. But we went to his house and we enlisted the help of his family and his lovely wife, whose name is Sam I believe, but they managed to keep it from him. He had absolutely no idea. I literally jumped over his garden fence and went in through the back door. He's got a hot tub, which obviously I didn't know about until I got there. Once I got him to agree on camera to give me an interview, I said Warwick can we do it in the hot tub and he said "Yeah, sure. Let’s do it in the hot tub". So we stripped off, and I sat naked in a hot tub with an Ewok. And that is just one of the great highlights of my life.

JN: Yeah, I can imagine! I've seen the lightsaber dual with Warwick and the pictures look fantastic. It certainly looks as though you've met your match in Warwick Davis. Will this teach you to pick on someone your own size?

JLC: Absolutely. He kicked my a***! I tell you what. He may be short, but he's strong. And he's good with a lightsaber.

JN: It certainly looked that from the pictures.

JLC: Sitting in the hot tub naked with Warwick, that was certainly the most fun moment for me. But, if I can give you a second answer: Billy Dee Williams, Lando Calrission, we caught up with in Syracuse, which is in New York state. He was doing a play in Syracuse. That for me was possibly the funniest interview. Simply because after about half-way through the interview I started to question whether or not he actually even remembers being in Star Wars. Do you know what I mean? That was really, really funny. He's obviously got a really great sense of humour and I can image he's probably a good guy to have a couple of beers with. He didn't have a clue who I was or what my game was or what I was doing or even what I was talking about half the time. So that obviously just made it very funny. For different reasons that was fun, but easily Warwick Davis. A lovely guy; a funny guy and he just stripped off and got in a hot tub with me, so there you go.

JN: Which says a great deal. Not many people would be willing to do that! We've heard that Carrie Fisher talks about her affair with Harrison Ford on the show. Can we expect any more scandalous revelations?

JLC: There was a story printed in the Sun about that and that's a dodgy one. Eventually you will see the film and will hear what she says. She, what's the word, alludes to certain things, but she's not blatant about anything really. But it's just certain things in the interview are alluded to and I wouldn't want to personally comment. That's not my place. There are certain things she told me on camera and certain things she told me off camera that I would never repeat. Certainly not on the record anyway. There are certainly several things in the film that unless you were an absolute, die-hard fan you would probably never know. And the Carrie Fisher thing would be one of them. C-3PO and R2-D2 hating each other would be another. I think, unless you were a die-hard fan you would never know that. Some of Mark Hamill's trouble with playing Luke Skywalker, with the character. One or two of those scenes might be new to certain people. And to me as well, as a big fan of the original trilogy, there were certain things I never knew and certain things I had never seen before. For example, did you ever see the Star Wars Christmas Special?

JN: I've still yet to see that. I keep meaning to and haven't actually gotten around to it.

JLC: The holiday special is amazing to see. I'd never even heard of it, let alone seen it. And I know that probably most of the die-hard fans will be aware of it, but not a lot of people would have seen it. It's somewhat of a rarity, so to actually get access to that film and to be able to use it in our film was quite a coup because it really is quite something to see.

JN: I have been told it's one of those things it's so bad it's good.

JLC: That's absolutely right. It's so bad it's good. It's quite remarkable to see it. And also the C-3PO card; have you seen it with the big gold erection?

JN: Yeah, the golden rod.

JLC: Yep, the golden rod. Not only did we have that, I had that in my possession, I actually produced it when I was with Anthony Daniels. Now by all accounts, Anthony Daniels is aware of the card and I think he's been faced with the card in the past and I don't think he's a big fan of it. When you see it close up, it's quite clear what it is and obviously someone in the manufacturers was having a laugh, that's clear to see. I don't think there's any debate. It seems to me to be quite a deliberate thing. And Anthony is not really a fan of it because he feels it is denigrating to the character. So he's not a big fan or it, but I managed to produce it and show it to him and it raised a smile, but again I wasn't aware of this card. I wasn't aware that this thing was in existence. I wasn't aware of the Holiday Special and I’d certainly never seen anything of the Holiday Special until we got access to it and were able to use it in the film and some of the things I learned about the cast members were all news to me. So I think there are certainly a lot of surprises in the film for the casual fan. And possibly one or two new things for even the most die-hard fan.

JN: OK, that answers a question a bit later on. Just going back to some of these stories. Was there anything that shocked you? It sounds as though there were a couple that you weren't aware of and were somewhat surprised, but was there anything that absolutely shocked you?

JLC: There are one or two things that I found shocking that I couldn't tell you and I know that sounds like I’m trying to be elusive, but I'm not. There are one or two things I wouldn't like to repeat. I wouldn't use the word 'shocking', I wouldn't say I was shocked, but the more I found out about Mark Hamill and Mark Hamill's attitude to playing Luke Skywalker shall we say, purely based on what other people have told me, that I found surprising. It seems that, from what I can gather, maybe he's come to terms with it now. Maybe you know this yourself, I certainly think that at the time he seemed to wrestle with being Luke Skywalker for quite a while, didn’t he?

JN: Yeah, it does seem to be the case. Almost a bit of a monkey on his back.

JLC: Yeah, I think it became a monkey on his back. And you know what, at the start of this journey, at the start of this film, that surprised me and I found that hard to understand. But as the story unfolded and unravelled and the more I got to know more about it and more about him. There is a moment in the film, without giving too much away, where I say that I think that I understand him better. I think I understand where he was coming from and why he found it to be such an albatross for all those years. So that was the thing that I found initially to be the most surprising, Mark Hamill's seeming sort of, dislike is the wrong word, difficulty maybe with playing this character which is one of the most famous characters in the whole of motion picture history. You know, to be Luke Skywalker, to have that kind of role, to have that part and this thing will live on long after Mark Hamill has left this world. Initially you would have thought that this is every actor's dream maybe to create a part, to play a part with such resonance that will go down in history, that will go down in film history. You think why didn't he like it? What was his problem? And then of course the more you learn, the more you know. I got to found out certain things about him which kind of made that thing a whole lot clearer to me.

JN: Well that's certainly something I look forward to seeing on the show. Again, you kind of touched on what things will be in the show and what Star Wars fans may or may not have seen or heard before. What reasons would you give as to why a Star Wars fan should not want to miss 'Bring Back Star Wars'?

JLC: Well I mean, if you're a fan of Star Wars then you're a fan of Star Wars. If you're a huge fan then obviously you will want to suck up as much information as possible. I can quite confidently say that it should appeal to the Star Wars fan because I am a Star Wars fan myself and obviously I like it and I find it interesting and entertaining. But also, I think it's nice particularly now when so much of what we talk about with regards to Star Wars is Jar Jar Binks and the new films and the debate that rages about are they good or not. There's the whole side of people who say yes they are and the other side of the fan base that says no they're not, they're terrible and obviously I put myself into that category. So much of Star Wars talk these days is about The Phantom Menace and it's about Jar Jar Binks and it's about the new actors and the new characters and the new films. And this, I would suggest, is a nice look back and a nice reminder maybe to those people who maybe need reminding about just how huge this thing was and what a phenomenon it was. And I think on that level it really works.

Check back tomorrow for the final part of the interview and don't forget to watch 'Bring Back Star Wars' at 9pm on Channel 4.