When interviewing top celebrities, there is sometimes one question you are dying to ask but never quite dare, for fear of being mauled.
Today is no exception, as I prepare to interrogate Britain’s latest superstar. In his defence, Harvey doesn’t seem the type to throw a tantrum. Quite the opposite. He is bending over backwards — sometimes literally — to be helpful.
He is, frankly, a model subject. Which is all the more remarkable given that Harvey is no ordinary celebrity for another important reason: he has four legs, not two.
Scroll down for video of Harvey's ad
Do you like the new iron? It's a Jack Russell Hobbs...
Still, when it comes to that killer question — ‘So, Harvey, what’s it like to lick Johnny Depp?’ — I just can’t quite bring myself to ask him. Perhaps it is the soulful brown eyes — trusting and pleading in equal measure.
Perhaps it is reverence. This is a star, after all, whose latest piece of work has been watched a million times on YouTube, and who has 10,000 friends on Facebook, and counting.
If you aren’t a Harvey fan yourself, it means you were either out of the country for the festive period, or you simply don’t like dogs. For Harvey may well be on the way to becoming the most famous hound in Britain since John Noakes’s Shep.
Judging by the number of comments in foreign languages on his Facebook page, he could soon be up there with Lassie in terms of global recognition. Harvey is the dog who has captured the nation’s heart by starring in a TV commercial — now voted Advert of the Year — that is simply impossible to watch without going 'ahhhh'.
In the ad for Thinkbox — which was made to promote the benefits of TV advertising, and clearly succeeded in spades — Harvey plays the role of an unwanted mutt longing for a new owner as he waits in a rescue centre’s kennels.
Cooking's a breeze with a pedigree chum like me around
No paws for the wicked. It's on with the Marigolds and in I go...
Playing unashamedly on the emotions of a young couple who are looking to take a dog home as a pet, he presses the play button on a short film he has supposedly made to demonstrate his extraordinary domestic skills.
There is Harvey doing the washing and the ironing, mowing the lawn, cleaning the shoes and windows. Just as you find yourself thinking ‘I wish I had a spouse that useful’, up pops Harvey to help with the cooking, play chess, fetch the children on the school run and tuck them into bed at night.
When the film ends, the couple look down to see that Harvey is sitting waiting for them, suitcase already packed, appealing look in eyes, fait most definitely accompli. ‘Every home needs a Harvey,’ says the caption. And a superstar is born.
So it is with no small degree of reverence that I have come to pay homage to Harvey at home with his owner Gill Raddings in Deddington, Oxfordshire.
Has the adulation — he’s had marriage proposals on Facebook, for goodness’ sake — turned this seven-year-old mongrel into a snooty celeb?
The first impressions are contradictory. The shiny, jewelled bling-bling collar around his neck suggests a certain love of the luxury lifestyle.
But the fact that when I arrive he is already up at the window, eager to greet the Man from The Press, suggests he is no prima dogga.
Looks good... I could do with a bite
Within minutes, Harvey is showing off his home-making talents — and soliciting rounds of applause in the kitchen. Gill gets the ironing board and iron out and he gamely places a paw on top and holds the pose while the photographer snaps away.
Next he is up on a chair at the cooker, spoon expertly held in his mouth. Then it’s time for the dishes, so he slips his paws into washing-up gloves.
There is one problem with this domestic talent. It’s just for show. The iron is stone cold and the cooker is off. Somehow it’s crushing to discover that, while talented, he’s still — whisper it — a dog.
The fact that Harvey can’t really put out the bins and change a light bulb is not the only harsh reality to be faced here. Harvey, it turns out, isn’t even called Harvey. In real life, his name is Sykes, and he is one of the most successful stunt dogs in the business.
His extensive CV records that he can sit, stand, roll over, play dead, beg, dance, crawl on his stomach, limp, hide his eyes and shake his head. It doesn’t promise him to be a chess master but then, thanks to the miracle of TV technology, it doesn’t have to.
Gill talks like a proud mum, but one who expects a certain level of co-operation from her young charge. For Sykes is not Gill’s only dog. She runs a company called Action Stunt Dogs And Animals, and it’s fair to say that dogs are her life.
Pictures of dogs line the stairs, while every sofa has a dog-proof cover and, more often than not, a dog. When night falls, Gill heads upstairs with her entourage, who all pile onto her bed.
Sykes does not have the monopoly on being the household’s star. Gill introduces each of her ‘celebrities’ by name and by the programme you might have seen them in. There’s Kyte, the 14-year-old Belgian Shepherd.
I'm dog tired but there's still the lawn to mow... oh well I better put my bark into it
He played Well ’Ard — Robbie Jackson’s dog in EastEnders — for seven years and once saved David Jason’s life in A Touch Of Frost. Kyte’s grandson Check can boast Pirates Of The Caribbean and Sherlock Holmes on his CV.
But it is Sykes who is, er, top dog, today. He has starred with Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd and Pirates Of The Caribbean; been a king’s pooch in The Other Boleyn Girl; had a role in Young Victoria, the Duchess, Burke And Hare and Alexander Prince of Persia, not to mention Clash Of The Titans and Wolfman.
Then there was the children’s TV series In 2 Minds: episodes of Casualty and Dalziel And Pascoe and one of those iconic John Smith beer adverts with Peter Kay. He also played Pickles in a TV drama about the dog that found the stolen World Cup in 1966.
So, how has he got on with his human co-stars — have there been any less-than-ideal encounters with celebrities? ‘Not ones I can possibly tell you about,’ says Gill, suggesting that Sykes is saving up the really juicy stories for his memoirs.
In reality, his job is not always as glamorous as it might seem. The work can be boring and repetitive; the hours long. More time than you’d imagine is spent in the make-up artist’s chair.
‘Oh yes, he has make-up. If he has to look older, or scruffier. They just use ordinary human make-up. And hair gel, too. Sykes loves the attention. He’s as happy doing this as he is racing across the fields. He’s just a supremely happy dog, a joy to be with,’ says Gill.
You’d really want Skyes to be handsomely paid for all this. Is he a millionaire stuntdog yet? ‘Well no, you don’t make a fortune in this business,’ says Gill. What about the perks? Does he get a gold-plated dish in his Winnebago on set?
'I don't like to appear ruff and ready'... Sykes cleans his clothes
‘Sadly not. He doesn’t even get a trailer. We have a car fitted out with cages.’
That Skyes is able to give such a compelling performance as a rescue-pound dog may partly be down to the fact that he was once an abandoned pooch himself. He came into Gill’s life when he was a seven-month-old stray, and it was love at first sight.
‘Some friends of mine who live near Romford were out for a walk with their dogs one day and this dog just joined them,’ she says. ‘Nobody claimed him and the police said they were going to put him in kennels.
‘My friends said: “Why don’t you take him?”, and so I did. He’s no particular breed — but there’s some Parson Jack Russell in there because he’s quite long-legged, and who knows what else.
‘He was a bit of a hooligan at first, but I could see he was just a pup and had a great temperament and was very bright. He took to dog training like a duck to water. It took about three or four months to get him to a point I was happy with.’
Was that the turn off for Barking? I'm not used to this car, normally I drive a Rover
What does she think is his secret? ‘There’s just something about him that people like — he is appealing, a cheeky chappy, cute but not in a cutesy way; he can do sad, he is a bit of a jack-the-lad.
‘He does get recognised these days and people will come up and say: “Do you know, that dog looks just like Harvey in the TV commercial.” They give him a pat. He loves the attention.’
And more attention is on its way. His fans will soon see plenty of him in Midsomer Murders, while in March he and the gang will be signing autographs — or should that be pawtographs —at a petfood stand at Crufts.
Meanwhile, he’s been busy updating his Facebook page with answers to the questions any self-respecting fan might ask (except the ones about Johnny Depp, unfortunately).
His favourite film is Where Beagles Dare, he confides. He’s a big fan of Pup Fiction. And Dogtor Who. And his favourite composer? Poochini, of course.