With tea chests of awards cluttering up his garage (including a BAFTA for 'Lifetime Achievement') John has a peerless television pedigree. His successes in advertising have been no less impressive. And yet it is The Meaning of Liff (a rather silly book co-written with his old flatmate Douglas Adams) that John is most proud of. It remains in print more than twenty-five years after first being published. At the beginning of 2011 John was awarded the CBE - for "services to television". He's rather proud of that as well.