Ace, Channel 4 Teletext
21st December, 2005

Madcap John Lydon talks to Ace…

Mention John Lydon and most people will think of outrageous Johnny Rotten from punk rockers the Sex Pistols, but his spiky haired days are well behind him.

As well as staring in 'I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here' and Discovery 'Megabugs', John tells Ace he's all set to get back in the pop charts and make a movie about his life…

"I've said for a while I want Justin Timberlake to play me and now he's even started to show an interest!" he laughs.

John Lydon's been telling everyone he wants Justin Timberlake to play him in a film about his life - and the squeaky singer has since begun vocal lessons so he can break into Hollywood.

"He would be great. He does want to act and I think he would really break his b******s to get it right", John tells Ace. "He wouldn't have to lower his voice and unlike me he can actually sing. All my songs would sound fabulous!"

John Lydon's latest roll on Discovery 'John Lydon's Megabugs' sees him get up close and personal with the world's most lethal bugs - not that it bothered him.

"It only occurred to me later just how unsafe it was. A violin spider jumped right out of the glass and down my arm. The crew were screaming but oddly enough I'm quite good under pressure", he sez.

"It was a consistent bunch of disasters that somehow I bluffed my way through."

John Lydon has come face to face with deadly scorpions and massive spiders in Megabugs. It sounds like the behaviour of a certain Aussie Croc Hunter.

"I like the way Steve Irwin's genuinely enthusiastic", says John. "He's not faking his love of nature because you can't. If he was that talented an actor he'd be playing romantic leads. But I don't know how he runs in those shorts. I think he must spray them on!"

John Lydon researched Megabugs from reading, but says schools need to make nature more enjoyable for students.

"The way it's put over in curriculums from my time to now is wrong. It's done in such a deadpan way with Latin names that all the thrill of living things is kicked out of it", he says. These wonderful creatures become almost like an art object or zoological specimens," adds the 49 year old.

John Lydon was one of the favourites to win 'I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here' when he famously walked out the jungle last year, but he made two good friends on the show.

"The only thing I came out loving apart from the wildlife - which was great - was Ant & Dec who'd give us a nod and a wink, I could relate to them" he says. "It was great that they set me up with ostriches. It was just like chatting up the birds in the Tottenham disco!"

Former 'I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here' contestant John Lydon says he has no time for the show.

"Carol Thatcher came up to me at the Comedy Awards and presumed I should know who she is because she the latest dignitary to the celebrity world. None of them have any love about that nature going on around them. They just see it as some fun fight for Top Spot. For me everything that's wrong with human nature is in that show," he says.

John Lydon has been following the third series of 'Little Britain' in the US, but tells us he's had enough of it.

"I thought it was a stroke of genius when it started - I thought, this is the most absurd show I've ever seen. But its beginning to get spiteful and the humour has gone. The characters are becoming stale and nasty, " he says.

"It's a very difficult thing to keep ideas running with such bizarre characters."

John Lydon - who's released his greatest hits 'The Best of British £1 Notes' - wants to get back in the singles charts.

"I've always had a pop sensibility - I like the short sharp sweetness of singles," says the Sex Pistols singer.

So whether it's on the radio, on the TV or in the cinema, expect to hear more of the Rotten one in 2006. We at Ace are just hoping Justin Timberlake is available for work…