The 5-Minute Interview: Andrew Collins, Journalist, scriptwriter and broadcaster

Andrew Collins, 42, is a presenter on BBC 6 Music. His book 'That's Me In The Corner', published by Ebury Press, is out now, priced £10.99

If I weren't talking to you right now I'd be...

Writing the fifth episode of the second series of Not Going Out. We have eight to do and it'll be on later this year. I'd also be writing the sleeve notes for the Levellers.

A phrase I use far too often is...

It's a miracle. It never is. I apply the concept to everyday things.

I wish people would take more notice of...

Litter. It worries me that people seem to think that dropping a carton on the floor is acceptable. If I see a car going past with someone dropping something out the window I feel my blood boil.

A common misperception of me is...

People who know me know I'm a healthy eater. Many assume I'm a vegetarian. I'm not. I'm O blood type, the original blood group, therefore I'm a hunter gatherer. If you're group A it's best to be a vegetarian. Blood group B can thrive off dairy products.

The most surprising thing that ever happened to me was...

Being allowed to be editor of a massive glossy music magazine - Q magazine. I never wanted to be a boss and suddenly I was. I did it for a couple of years and didn't really like it.

I'm not a politician but...

I would operate a benign dictatorship. You can't allow the free market to run things, which is how the current government operates. You'd have to renationalise public transport and house building. You need state control in order to make it a better world. If you were a benign dictator you could break up Tesco.

I'm good at...

Playing the drums, but I don't have a kit. I play on desks and the steering wheel with my fingers.

But I'm very bad at...

Not shouting at the telly.

The ideal night out is...

Cinema, followed by blood group O suitable food at a restaurant. I like to pay for everything. I spent a lot of my journalistic career getting free things - it's good for the soul to pay.

In moments of weakness I...

Buy foreign language films on DVD that I don't need. I've got every Ingmar Bergman film.

You know me as a broadcaster and scriptwriter, but in a truer life I'd have been a...

Cartoonist. I was a cartoonist and if I'd never got a job at NME and all of this hadn't happened, I would have been a cartoonist drawing covers for Puzzle Magazine and brokers' corporate brochures and corporate Christmas cards.

The best age to be is...

42. Douglas Adams said 42 was the meaning to life in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which I can say is true. It would be a very tragic thing to wish you were younger. I was quite stupid in my twenties.

In a nutshell, my philosophy is...

The same as Derek Batey used to say on Mr and Mrs from the 1970s: "Be Nice to Each Other". It was the sign off. He was a philosopher in his own lunchtime television sort of way.

Elisa Bray