Ben Dover is one of the most famous and best loved figures of British porn, having been starring in and directing his own hardcore amateur gonzo movies for the last 10 years. AJ took the train to Surrey to pay him a visit...

So, Mr Ben Dover. Here you are...I half expected you to have a camera on your shoulder - I don't think I've ever seen you just...walking around like this. Well, here I am! Right, what are we doing then?

Anal! Hell-oooo! You know me, - I'm always ready... *grabs crotch*

Actually, I'd rather know how you ended up in what a lot of men would consider the perfect job - making a living from being a... Dirty, sex crazed old pervert?

You say that like it's a bad thing! Well, it certainly wasn't what I wanted to be originally! I was an aspiring rockstar. I've always been into performing, I just didn't realise exactly what kind of 'performing' I would end up doing. I wanted to be on stage, rocking the crowds, and I ended up shagging girls in the bum.

So - you wanted to be a rock star, and now you're a cock star. What went wrong? Let's just say that back then, the music world was run by rich gay men, and you never got anywhere unless you sucked cock. Thinking back, maybe I should have given it a try!

You've never sucked cock? Nope - not once.

But surely you've stuck a dildo down your throat, just to see how it feels for those poor little fillies you facefuck? I suppose I should have done, but no I haven't. I can't put things in my mouth like that - it makes me gag!

*Ben sticks his fist in his mouth, gags, and laughs at himself*

So fine...lots of people don't make it in music. What led you into pornography? Did you have some very liberating sexual experiences on the rock circuit or something? You could say that! After one gig, I thought I was going to die of pleasure - I had this gorgeous girl sitting on my face, and another giving me one of the best blowjobs I'd ever had. I was almost at spurting point, when the girl I was licking shifted positions, and I suddenly realised it was actually a bloke sucking my cock. I was, to say the least, a bit shocked, but the moment itself was so grippingly horny, and the girl pointed out how much I'd been loving it, so I thought what the hell, and let him finish me off!

Well, I've always maintained that gay men give better head than straight girls. Or trannies, because they're the best of both worlds. They know how to treat a cock, because they have or used to have one, but they look like gorgeous glamorous girls. I think it's kind of natural to fancy transsexuals - they're very sexy and always have nice arses.

Ever fucked one? Well, yes - but I didn't realise at the time! When I was 18, I was a drummer in a rock band, and one night we were on the road, driving through the night. There was this chick hitching a lift, and fancying a bit of totty, we picked her up, but for some reason the lads just pushed her over to me! I thought all my birthdays had come round at once, so I whisked her off into the back for a bit of rumpy pumpy. I remember feeling at the time that her pussy felt a bit odd, but being young and relatively inexperienced, I just hammered away, came and that was that. The next morning, my mates were pissing themselves laughing, but wouldn't say why. "Good in bed was she, Ben?" "Er...yeah, I guess..." "Notice anything weird about her?" "Er....no...hang on a minute". It wasn't because I'd slept with a transsexual, it was because I hadn't even known.

I'm sure you had plenty of girls to give a good seeing to as well, though. I certainly did, especially in Japan, where our bands were really big. I shagged a 13 year old on the bullet train once, and I was only about 14 at the time myself.

If the police come knocking at your door after this interview is published, you'll only have yourself to blame... You haven't heard the half of it yet! These Japanese teenagers were sex crazy! When we were on stage, they used to throw us little notes - notes asking us to take their virginity, notes with their phone numbers or hotel room numbers...

And I presume you took them up on it... We all did! The funniest was this one time, our drummer was shagging this youngster, who was obviously still a virgin. He'd been inside her, then was going down on her, when suddenly there was a knock on the door - it was her dad! He shoved the girl into a wardrobe, thinking he'd successfully got away with it, but I was pissing myself laughing - he had blood all over his face, it must have been so obvious what was going on.

Japanese girls are filthy little vixens. Have you considered making a porn film out there? I really wish I could, because I love them, but it's so hard to find the contacts to get the chicks. Filming porn out there is a totally different story - not just harder to organise, but also you could do such different, bizarre things. I'd like to send schoolgirls out with remote controlled vibrators in them, film them in public as I turned them on - imagine that, the girls just trying to go about their day, with me outside turning them on and off!

And their little knee high socks and sailor suits. Mmmm, Japanese girls. I know you have a thing for Indian girls too, don't you? Fancy an Indian sells incredibly well on Strictly Broadband - it seems a lot of men share your fetishes for babes of the East. Are you going to make a sequel? I would dearly love to, but like making films in Japan, it's near impossible to find willing girls - it took years to find enough girls to release a whole movie. Indian culture places so much shame on women doing anything like that, especially on camera. It takes a very brave girl to go against her family's wishes or behind their backs and film a porn scene. If a girl who had worked for me, and her family found out and threw her out, I'd be the first person offering to help her in any way I could.

Yeah, and the corrupted innocence. I want to know what really happened in your scene from Fancy an Indian - 'Little Virgin Girly' . Woah - I was totally out of my depth on that one. There was no acting going on there - I truly did not know why she'd come to me, because she didn't seem to realise what actually happens in porn. She thought it was all...well...faked, and that nothing really happened; that you just pretended to have sex. I just carried on filming and talking to her, because I didn't know what else to do, and because the footage I was getting was fascinating, and unique.

So how did it end? One minute she was tentatively sucking your cock, and the next...well...there you were, cryptically explaining about the BBFC cut. It's all very well leaving something to the imagination, but we don't want the 'R' word flying around, do we? Hold on, I didn't shag her! All that got cut was the last minute, where I pulled out and came on her face. This girl wasn't lying when she said she'd never seen a cock before - she'd certainly never sucked one! She didn't realise that when a man climaxes, spunk comes out, and had a massive freak-out when she got covered in goo. That's why it got censored, because she was so distressed by it. Poor little thing.

That's incredible - all that happened was a blowjob, and yet the scene makes more sexual impact than a 50 guy gangbang. It was the excitement of managing to do it, though, to persuade this girl, who had never even watched any porn, let alone starred in it, to do something dirty, there and then. I mean - that's what the whole Ben Dover thing was all about, at first. It was just me, with a camcorder, meeting girls and talking my way into their knickers.

But in reality, surely you can't just go into town, accost a girl, and be shagging her within 20 minutes? Of course you can't, and that's what people didn't see - the 2 hours between meeting them and getting them naked, where I'd be buying them lunch, talking, explaining things, cajoling, reassuring... sometimes nothing would end up happening, sometimes I'd just get a blowjob, sometimes they'd shag me just to shut me up.

So you really have found models off the street? Some people say it's acted! They can say what they like, but the reality is that if the girls were acting in some of these scenes, they'd be on the telly, not in porn. As long as it comes across as real, while adding to the fantasy, why should people worry about how and why.

The 'reality' vibe is one of the reasons why British porn is so popular, I'd say. Real girls, real sex. It's certainly totally different to the movies that come out of the USA. It's all very well taking six dicks up your arse at the same time, but is that something you can imagine a girl just wanting to do? And the girls can be so fake - all looking the same, polished and identical, fake boobs and blonde hair, and the sex is awful. You pull their top down and touch their boob, and suddenly they're giving it all the dirty talk - "Oh yeah, does that make your cock hard, do you like my big tits, yeah, I'm gonna rub my tits for you now, baby, God I'm so fucking wet", and all this while she's still in her pants!

What do you feel about that general theme of abuse and humiliation? I just think it betrays a lack of confidence on the parts of the men, and also feeds vulnerable people a destructive version of sex. America is a less mature nation sexually - actually, they're a less mature nation, full stop!

So is there a place for this type of gonzo in Britain? Would you participate if a girl asked you to? Of course, but there's ways of doing it which can be acceptable, as long as you don't push it too far. And I think I know where to draw the line. I mean, I find it exciting when I'm making a girl gag on my cock, for example, but I wouldn't do it to the point where she's throwing up or passing out. Nor would I donkey punch her. What's the point of being so horrible in a sexual situation? So why do you think more and more men want to watch that kind of thing at all? It wouldn't be made if it didn't sell. More and more, the point of the porn is to give men the opportunity to vicariously be in control of a girl, sexually. It's just been slowly going that way now as women become increasingly empowered in society - there's been an active pornographic backlash as men try to get back at women who seem to be above their station.

Interesting theories, I'm sure things have completely changed in the 15 years since you started. How was the world of porn different to today? It wasn't legal, for a start! Half the people jumping on the porn bandwagon now didn't want to know when we pornographers were all being carted off to jail back then.

Do you regret it being made legal? Kind of. On the positive side, you can declare the income, and live a very good lifestyle, because if you do it right, and work hard, there's money in it. On the downside, I liked the days when I could sell a VHS tape for 65 pounds and savour the result of that one sale instead of having to make ten to get the same amount of profit. Back then, it was valuable and rare - these days it's everywhere. It's not as easy as it was.

There's a stereotype of pornographers making shitloads of cash just filming pretty girls, though - I take it it's not that simple? Well, the industry peaked about a year ago, and it's not a goldmine any more. People always try to take the piss, to get things cheaper, but there's only so cheap you can go before it's not even worth selling any more. The industry made a mistake in not toughing it out pricewise - when you devalue a product, people think it isn't worth any more than the lowest price they've paid.

Have you had to slash your prices because of all this? I've tried not to. People know what they're getting with my movies though - the price may be higher but the quality is assured. Perceived value is important - people should have to save up for it, should see good porn as a luxury product, not something you can download for free, or get down the pub for 2 quid.

What about the sex itself - how have you adapted what you film to keep your movies popular? I was one of the first to have a real fixation on anal, and to make proper, all anal movies. It's not just economics - people buying more movies with the word 'anal' on the cover than without - but simply a personal love for fucking a girl up the arse.

Is it just the physicality of a girl's arse, or is there something more? When you're filming a guy shagging a girl in the butt, you're conveying how filthy she is. In the old days, birds like Traci Lords were goddesses, you'd come in your pants just looking at a picture of her face, but you'd never think you'd see a girl like that naked. You accepted that. Then along comes another gorgeous girl, and she lets you fuck her up the arse. Filthy bitch - you could do anything you wanted to her! It's just for the sake of it, about portraying their willingness to go this far.

What's your favourite kind of anal scene? A girl who's trying it for the first time, who's trusted me enough to do that to her, given herself to me, for that. If a girl tried to do anal and failed, didn't quite manage it, it would still be much more erotic than just hammering away at a hardened pornstar.

Haven't all those years of daily anal and DP left you craving something more sexually? Like someone who builds up resistance to a drug and needs something stronger to get the same high? That's why I've developed so many fetishes. After you've done a certain number of scenes, you become more and more immune to the normal turnons. After my main actor, Pascal, was in 4 different foot fetish movies a few years ago, the whole foot fetish thing kind of rubbed off on him, and now he can't do a scene without it.

So is he secretly eyeing up the actresses feet every time you shoot him? I don't usually show it in the main footage, but yes - he'll be really focusing on her feet as he works himself up for the cumshot - licking them, sucking them, rubbing them on his cock...

Any other preferences you've developed as a result of oversexposure? Definitely hairy pussies and armpits. I used to really like girls all shaved, but it just got boring, and now I just like them as natural as they come. With big cotton pants to match.

So do you and your studs all share these fetishes? Yeah, feet, hairy pussies and pissing. We've all developed these fetishes together, sharing them - if we were German, we'd probably all be shitting on each other!

So what do you do? With Elle, in We're 18, We're The A-Teens, I couldn't resist it - I had another camera covering her, let her piss away for a while for the scene, then dived underneath her to catch the last spurts for myself. I mean, piss is so much a regular part of porn films now, it's such a shame the BBFC have these crazy rules on it. That would have been fantastic footage.

By the way, how did you manage to get British Cum Queens & British Housewives Fantasies rated R18 when the BBFC declares squirting to be illegal? I released that before the BBFC even knew what squirting was - they just sent it on through; it wasn't piss, must be ok! It was hugely popular, people didn't know what had hit them - it was this whole new sexual fetish. Unfortunately the police heard about it, and they weren't so keen - they told the BBFC never to let anything like that through again. It's a shame, but at least I got away with it the once!

Are your fetishes the reason why you can happily have sex with such a huge variety of women? It's amazing how you have a hardon for every actress who comes your way - whether she's old or young, fat or thin... you seem to be attracted to all of them. It's not just the fetishes, it's how you look at women. I've never really turned a one away, although it's been touch and go a couple of times. If she's attractive and she's made the best of what she's got, that's what I find sexy. For example if a girl is fat, she will often have a really pretty face, so I just focus on that.

Well, with such a wide variety of female totty, you definitely seem to keep most people happy. Apart from that, why do you think it's been such a runaway success? It's all down to the catchy name! Well, and the character I play. You see, the man people see on camera is a non threatening, normal guy. Young guys are into it because I'm older than them, like an uncle, and they hope that one day they'll get to do all this! And older men can identify with me, because I'm not some musclebound stud with a perfect body and a full head of hair. Ben Dover has a wide appeal from different sections of male society.

I have to admit, you guys are pretty funny together. That's why I use Pascal and Marino all the time - apart from the fact that British guys just can't fuck properly, it's because between us, we have such a laugh together. Half the blokes you see on telly - they have massive teams of scriptwriters, they get paid shitloads to sit around all day thinking of new material, and yet some of the comedy we've come up with while shagging girls is so much funnier.

Haven't you ever wanted to do that though - go on TV and do acting, do non pornographic work, to be watched by the masses? That's really the main thing I do want, these days - fame, and acceptance into the mainstream media world. I get recognised on the street, I get asked for autographs, blokes ask me to shag their wives... But the more people treat me like a famous person, the more I start to wonder why I still can't get on the TV, still won't be taken seriously - hardcore porn is just that little bit too much for the committee to swallow. I mean, I went out on the town with one of the stars of Coronation Street, one of our most popular soaps, and yet it was me people were coming up to and wanting a photo of. But I can't get on any of the chatshows, gameshows, Celebrity Big Brother, I'm a Celebrity, even though in reality I'm much more well known than some of the Z listers on there.

The world of celebrity has strange issues on porn. It's hypocrisy though - a girl like Paris Hilton has been seen by all and sundry in a porno, but that's ok because she didn't do it for the money - "It was an accident". She can pretend she didn't want to be a pornstar, so she's still a hugely popular celeb. Same with Abi Titmuss- what's the difference between openly trying to make a career out of shagging celebrities and selling the story, and me openly saying "I'm Ben Dover and I'm a pornographer."

Being a famous pornographer isn't enough? I don't see myself as that - I see myself as Lindsey Honey, the failed rockstar. I've been thinking how old I am, about all the stuff I've done, and it's a fantastic buzz, but there's no fight left anymore - it seems I've got everything anyone could want. A massive house, a beautiful family, a lovely wife... but I'm still unfulfilled because I never made it as a rockstar. You always want what you never achieved...and can't have.

Fancy checking out Ben's work? Click here to see his movies!