Just a minute (and then some...)

The Moby Dick of celebrity scoops here, that man Macca, has unfortunately remained out of reach - but many years at Metro have involved pitching in with a few 60 Second Interviews.

A favourite was with Jerry Lee Lewis, before seeing him play live at the Palladium - although he was dubious about his chances of understanding anyone with a British accent.

An eyebrow or two might have arisen on the Tube that morning at "The Killer" somehow insisting: "Some people have said they are afraid of me, but I don’t know why. I’m a really nice guy."

Also enjoyable was what actually proved to be almost a 60 Minute Interview with David Lloyd, plenty of whose one-liners survived albeit at the expense of his also-intriguing cricket analysis.

An extract from the published chat then went "viral" on Twitter at least, largely ta to being shared by the “Accidental Partridge” @AccidentalP account.

Sorry, Bumble.

Sophia Loren was a surprise A-lister to be given time with, albeit on the phone to her home in Switzerland - and her personal assistant later sent a kind message saying how much she had appreciated the conversation. Mamma mia.

An interview that happened yet unfortunately got away - in terms of making it to print, that is - was with Liza Minnelli, dropped by our Features team after she abruptly pulled out of the London event she was meant to be plugging.

This answer/non-answer went down well, mind:

"Is Kermit the Frog really as decent as he always seems?"

- "I never kiss and tell."

Thanks to all those, as well as a motley crew of Peter Crouch and Paterson Joseph, Hulk Hogan and Derren Brown, Hannah Cockroft and Faisal Islam, and any others not included here or who also alas went the way of Liza with a Z...

Other favourite moments remembered from colleagues' 60 Second Interviews include...

Metro: "You're something of a wine buff - will you be imbibing on your show tour?"

Henry "Blowers" Blofeld: "My dear old thing, you must come back and say hello when you come and see my show. We'll have a glass of an excellent vintage."

Metro: "Who was your favourite Spice Girl?"

Elvis Costello: "Baby. Wasn't she everyone's favourite?"

Metro: "Any final message for the Metro readers?"

Michael Palin: "Just to say what a wonderful paper it is. They're very good. When my North Korea programme came out, Channel 5 did a wraparound on all Metros in the country with a marvellous piece of artwork based on North Korean communist artwork. It was terrific, one of the best campaigns I think I've ever seen. So rock on, guys!"

And of course...

Metro: "Why do you call Noel 'potato?'"

Liam Gallagher: "'Cos he looks like one."