'Down-to-earth Jacko is no freak,' says spoon-bending psychic Geller

Uri Geller, the spoon-bending psychic who persuaded Michael Jackson to agree to a television interview with Martin Bashir, has spoken of his fear that producers have turned tomorrow night's eagerly awaited programme into a "freak show".

In an outspoken attack on Granada TV, Geller said he was "worried" by trailers and newspaper adverts focusing on "sensationalist" aspects of Jackson's private life. He said he would be "very angry" if the documentary, which he persuaded Jackson to film after a personal approach from Bashir, failed to depict the singer as a "down-to-earth" person.

Geller, who two years ago startled the picturesque Berkshire village of Sonning by inviting Jackson to be best man at his wedding, said: "Michael liked Martin, and he was happy to have him around. I said to him, 'Michael, maybe it's time to open up to the world.' But now I'm slightly worried, because it seems sensationalist.

"There are three possible scenarios I can see coming with this programme: 1) it's really nice and balanced or positive towards Michael; 2) it's just a freak show; and 3) it's very negative and derogatory and not fair."

The 90-minute film, Living with Michael Jackson, is another coup in Bashir's headline-grabbing career. The 39-year-old broadcaster first came to public attention in 1995, when he secured what, at the time, was the ultimate TV scoop: a face-to-face interview with Diana, Princess of Wales. Since then, others including Louise Woodward, the British nanny accused of murder in the US, and the entertainer Michael Barrymore have had the Bashir treatment.

Stressing the fact that "no subject was off-limits", Granada has devoted huge ads in national papers to single questions about Jackson's past, including the disintegration of his face and the child abuse allegations that blighted his career in the early 1990s.

In one TV trailer, the singer is shown bottle-feeding his 11-month-old son, Prince Michael II, and bouncing him vigorously on his knee. Only three months ago, the star was pilloried for dangling the baby from the window of a Berlin hotel room, an incident said to feature heavily.

Jacko will be shown teaching Bashir to "moonwalk", and the film will also feature the first ever report from inside Jackson's Neverland Ranch home.

Criticising the programme's producers for failing to send him an advance copy of the finished interview, as he requested, Geller said he would feel personally betrayed if the film was not "fair".

"I've brought Tonight the scoop of the century, and I will be very angry, extremely angry, if they betray that, because I will feel that I, as Uri Geller, have been tricked."

A Granada spokesman confirmed the film would be "mind-blowing stuff", but declined to comment on Geller's remarks. While he waits to find out how sympathetic the film is, Geller is planning a new venture for Jackson that would overshadow the singer's past eccentricities. The psychic, who claims to have been visited by aliens, is masterminding Jackson's bid to walk on the moon. "I'm getting very positive responses from an aviation agency in America. The estimated cost will be $5bn."