Peter Rhodes meets Miss Piggy: 'A spontaneous and unscripted few minutes of pure joy'

I have interviewed some luvvies in my time. Most actors are down-to-earth types, only too happy to talk at whatever level they find themselves, whether it's a chat with a local newspaper or a front-page interview for Vogue.

But from time to time you meet one so self-obsessed, so convinced the world revolves around them, that you can only keep on scribbling your notes and hope it will soon be over.

In nearly 50 years as a hack one luvvie interview stands out from all the others, and it happened 25 years ago this festive week.

Firstly, this lady was not only unbearably pompous, but also a blatant and unashamed liar. Secondly, she was not flesh and blood. She was latex. She was Miss Piggy. She was terrific.

The Muppets had come to town to launch The Muppet Christmas Carol movie and I got to interview them in a suite at a hotel in Birmingham.

It began with an informal chat with the performers, Brian Henson , Frank Oz, Steven Whitmire and Dave Goelz. Their puppets, lying on a sofa, were no more than colourful chunks of rubber and sticks.

And then Oz picked up Miss Piggy and I asked her whether she was disappointed not to have more lines in the movie. What happened next went beyond puppetry. It was like life itself. As I wrote at the time: "The bald man with the deep voice suddenly speaks in a strident falsetto. Miss Piggy is made flesh."

"As long as I'm with Kermit, it doesn't matter," the pig simpered.

And off we went on our very own private Muppet Show, a spontaneous and unscripted few minutes of pure joy. How was the romance with Kermit going?

"You journalists know that there are public and private stances," said Miss Piggy reproachfully. "Kermit cannot speak of me too much in a close way because many, many women will be hurt."

"Look," protested Kermit (Whitmire) in that familiar nasally sing-song voice, "just trust the frog, okay? I'm telling you we will be spending Christmas separately."

The Muppet Christmas Carol, starring Michael Caine, has aged well. A quarter-century after its 1992 launch, it is a festive fixture on telly. For all its silliness, it sticks closely enough to Charles Dickens's 1843 story to move us to both tears and laughter.

The eternally put-upon Kermit was perfect for the role of the downtrodden clerk, Bob Cratchit. But was Miss Piggy not far too glamorous to play his wife?

"I put a tremendous amount of preparation each day into looking drab," she told me, coquettishly flicking back a blonde curl. What a line. What a dame.

Sadly, the intervening 25 years never delivered the part Miss Piggy longed for. What she had in mind, she confided dreamily, was to be leading lady in a historical costume drama. Ivanhoe would be wonderful - but it had to be with Kermit.

"Good grief," said the little green frog, burying his head in his hands. Unforgettable.

Have a very merry one.

The Muppet Christmas Carol is on Channel 4 at 6.30pm on Christmas Eve