David Icke is a former Coventry City goalkeeper and BBC sports presenter turned writer and campaigner who's convinced, amongst other things, that Earth is run by "reptilian humanoids". In an appropriate departure from the norm, Small Talk conducted its chat by email

Nice to virtually meet you, David. How are you?

I am very well, thank you, rarely been better.

What are you working on at the moment?

I am doing many things, documentaries, a DVD movie shot by a Los Angeles company, working on my next book and, as always, posting suppressed news on my website, davidicke.com. There is also an exploding media interest in my work, which is taking up a lot of time at the moment both sides of the Atlantic.

Do you still follow football?

Yeah, if you can call being a Leicester City supporter 'following football'. My biggest interest is coaching my 13-year-old son, Jaymie, who is an outstanding goalkeeper - far better than I was at the same age. I have been coaching him since he was seven and he was on Portsmouth's books for the last four years, before we left recently because we didn't like the way their youth development system was being run. We're now talking with another Premiership club and seeing him get better and better gives me enormous pleasure.

Who'll win the World Cup?

Don't care.

After you first started talking about extra-terrestrials, and made some startling predictions, you were openly mocked in the street. How do people react to you now?

Most people treat me like anyone else, but more and more are coming up to me to say they read my books and to keep going, no matter what anyone says. But, then, that's never been a problem. In terms of the way people see me, it breaks down into two very clear and distinct groups: those who think they know me from reading the papers and those who really know me by reading my books.

Have you kept in touch with any of your old colleagues from football or the BBC?

No. It was never a world I really enjoyed. The BBC sports department when I was there was seriously to the right of Ghengis Khan and if people think I am strange they should have met some of the production staff I worked with. Margaret Thatcher and the Queen were the pin up girls for many of them. I hope it's different now, for the sake of those who work there. As they used to say about the BBC - they get so confused they stab each other in the chest.

You reckon malicious extra-terrestrials have thrown a "frequency net" around our planet to prevent us accessing higher forms of consciousness, but that good ETs are fighting to free us. Why are aliens so interested in us?

Terms like 'good' and 'bad' are extremely simplistic in what is a far more complex situation. I prefer to speak of 'interdimensionals' rather than 'extraterrestrials' because the latter has connotations of 'little green men' and all the other cliché responses. Nor does it tell the full story.

Which is?

Our five senses can access only a tiny frequency range, like a radio tuned to one station. In the space you are occupying now are all the radio and television stations broadcasting to your area. You can't see them and they can't see each other because they are on different wavelengths. But move your radio dial and suddenly there they are, one after the other.

Carry on, David...

It is the same with the reality we experience here as 'life'. What we call the 'world' and the 'universe' is only one frequency range in an infinite number sharing the same space. The interdimensional entities I write about are able to move between these frequencies or dimensions and manipulate our lives. When people say they saw a 'UFO' disappear in front of their eyes, for example, the 'craft' has not 'disappeared' it has left the frequency range their eyes can access and thus, to them, it seems to disappear. Ghosts are entities on other frequencies, too.

You've said some of these interdimensionals masquerade as mere mortals to occupy powerful positions on our planet. Can you recognise them simply by looking at them?

It is often possible if you know what to look for - especially by the eyes. I once had an extraordinary experience with former prime minister Ted Heath. Both of his eyes, including the whites, turned jet black and I seemed to be looking into two black holes. This happened years before I got into the subjects I write about today. But when I began to meet people all over the world who told me of having the experience of seeing people's eyes turn black I knew exactly what they meant.

Any well-known sports people you suspect of being not of this world?

Having seen him play in the 60s at the peak of his powers, there is no way George Best was human!

You've also declared that ETs tampered with our DNA gazillions of year ago. What's up?

It is widely known, of course, that we use only a fraction of our brain's potential and capacity. It does seem that we are blocked off from this potential, like a computer working on a fraction of its capability, because if we were whole-brain people, as we are meant to be, we would be impossible to suppress and control. Many are now waking up, however, and reactivating more of this potential.

What is the future of humanity?

We are the fork in the road and it's choice time. I am speaking at the Brixton Academy in London on May 6th for seven hours, using hundreds of illustrations. The title of the presentation is: Freedom Or Fascism: The Time To Choose. It sums it up.

What's the biggest myth you've heard about yourself?

That I have discovered religion. It is the greatest form of mind control and potential suppression yet invented. God save us from religion.

Hash and booze: good, bad or irrelevant?

It's a question of scale.

Is it true you were asked to appear on Celebrity Big Brother?

They came over and talked to me about it last year and I wondered if I could use it to get over information that people didn't usually hear. I decided that this would not be the case and given George Galloway's experience it was a good call.

Indeed.

How ironic it is, by the way, that so many are obsessed with the TV 'Big Brother', who is nothing more than some silly producer with a script and a microphone, and yet the same people wouldn't turn their heads to learn about the real Big Brother who is taking away their freedoms by the day.

What's the last CD you bought?

I loved 60s music and Motown, but now it's the music of my son, Gareth, the lead singer and song writer in a band called Kody that gigs around the country. Gaz will be massive when someone is intelligent enough to give him a break. His song writing and voice are so original and distinctive.

What's your favourite TV show?

Heartbeat. I love the scenery, the music, the 60s vehicles and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. I adore steam trains. But I wish Claude Jeremiah Greengrass was still in the show - he's the greatest character in television history for me and brilliantly played by Bill Maynard.

The Vatican is said to be in possession of a communiqué from aliens, first given to the children of Fatima. What do you suspect the message says?

Don't know, don't care, but if the Roman Church is involved there is bound to be a scam going on. It is the Church of Babylon relocated, as I reveal in detail in one of my books.

Cheese or chocolate?

Cheese.

Favourite drink on a night out?

A pint of lager and red wine.

What constitutes a good night out for you?

A pint of lager and red wine.

Do you have a party piece?

No, don't like parties, so no need for pieces.

Britney or Beyoncé?

Bernard Manning.

If you had your own chat show, who would you invite as your first guest?

George Bush, Tony Blair and Donald Rumsfeld all together. It would be candy from a baby when you know the real background to these people.

If you could recommend one place on Earth for people to visit, where would that be?

Northern Arizona.

Can you tell us a joke?

You know that look women get when they want sex? Me neither.

Badoom-tish! Thanks for the chat, David. Bye.

No problem, Small Talk, mate.