Whatever happened to the tear-away youngster that wowed the international pop scene a while back - a guy by the name of Herman? He doesn't exist any more, as Georgina Mells discovered when she went to see Peter Noone in his luxury apartment high above London's rooftops. Instead of the Herman of old she found a poised young man with some serious views on life . . .

Peter on smoking:
    I can remember exactly the day I gave it up. It was November 9th last year and I was watching Andy Williams singing at nine o'clock in the morning . . . I used to smoke about 50 a day and wheeze when I ran upstairs. As for singing, I couldn't think of being in good voice before lunchtime but since I gave up I'm a new person.

Peter on women:
    I can't think why women are always going on about liberation and equality. Really they are far superior to men, in a much better position to get their own way and if they don't enjoy their position then it's their own fault.

Peter on films:
    I made three terrible films, sort of Hard Day's Night one, two and three. Before I get talked into making another I shall have to be very sure it's the right one.

Peter on his career now:
    When I played a season at the London Palladium it cost me an awful lot of my own money to do it, but I wanted to do the show my own way. There are so many fantastic devices on that stage - it can revolve and rise and things like that, but they hardly ever use them because they need so many people to operate it that it gets expensive. I like the idea of that sort of very professional, showy sort of stage production.

Peter on children and marriage:
    I want to have children soon, in about two or three years. That seems quite soon to me. At the moment Mireille and I are never apart. We spend twenty-four hours of the day together and whenever I go away she comes too. When we decide to start a family I want to fix it so that I don't have to work for at least six months after the baby arrives.

Peter on first going to the States:
    We were treated incredibly well out there. It was as if we were the second Beatles, and then came the Monkees and they were the third, but looking back, it was a bad scene. The only people who came out of it well there were The Stones, because they didn't get involved at that time.

Peter on exotic names:
    Odd names are great at first to make people sit up and take notice and remember who you are. A Herman or an Engelbert or a Gilbert O'Sullivan sticks in the memory. But later on when you've got a reputation you can't get away from the gimmick.

Peter on furniture:
    Mireille and I love collecting for the flat, expecially antiques and Chinese stuff. There are bits around the place that I've picked up all over the world wherever I've worked, from Hong Kong to Dublin and Scarborough.

Peter on doing a television series:
    I wouldn't agree to do a television show for Britain unless I could have American guests and not just have to make do with British ones. An Andy Williams sort of thing would be good.

Peter on his dog Mickey:
    She's a girl really, a Yorkshire terrier, but in French dogs are male and so she ended up with a male name!