"I never forget my low position in the food chain," said Kermit, when I had a private audience with him in 1996. "I'm basically an appetiser on a menu," he gulped. "There are many restaurants where, if I walked in off the boulevard, I could find my legs being floured, seasoned and fried."

I suggested Kermit could toughen up – and make a film titled Reservoir Frogs, or Natural Spawn Killers. "I don't like doing things that the family can't watch together. We have had heads exploding (gulp) and Miss Piggy is very hoove-y at karate, but it's symbolic violence, used as a symbol, for … er, violence."

On TV at the time, Miss Piggy was upset by rival pig Spamela Hamderson. Yet hadn't Henson Productions been in a legal rumpus with the makers of Spam the previous year? "Oh gee," Kermit gulped. "They said Spa'am, the High Priest of Wild Boars in our film, infringed their luncheon meat trademark."

From behind Kermit's prop wall, voice-of-Kermit Steve Whitmire suddenly appeared to say that the production company's name and any deals it had with food companies were taboo when in character. Also to enjoy a tea with scones on a tiered stand. "We are the hardest working people in show business," he exhaled. "Twelve-hour days, arms held above the head, neck bent to see a monitor, drinking through a straw."

He became Kermit again. "I have bottled water brought in. Not the expensive stuff – swamp water, to pour in the hotel tub." What do you eat? "Swamp salads, with lime green vinaigrette, I like. Worms in steamed lily pads. But mainly flies that crawl or fly by. Time's fun when you're having flies."