You might not remember Mad Dogs and Englishmen, a really bad 1995 movie starring Liz Hurley, which disappeared without trace. But you're soon going to hear more about its director Henry Cole who is the first to admit that his debut film was 'shit'.

The great-nephew of 19th century prime minister William Gladstone, Henry has one hell of story that had me enthralled from beginning to end. An only child, he was bought up in the sprawling family home (14 bedrooms and 40 acres of parkland).
At Eton, he grew his own marijuana. The only reason he was not expelled was that he owned up to it, and managed to get away with a three-week suspension. I guess honesty is always the best policy.

Henry's six-week series 'Great Drives' has just aired on the Travel Channel, getting over 10 million viewers in the UK and across Europe. 'Stars and their Cars' is another of his primetime shows in which the likes of Liz Hurley, Jay Kay and Eddie Jordan talk about and show off their cars. Having just sold his motorbike, Henry is a huge fan of fast cars and is building up quite a collection that includes a Ferrari 328, a Lamborghini and, of course, the Porsche.

"I rebelled very early," Henry told me over coffee, "I thought I was a sad rebel without a cause, so when I was at school I had a mohican haircut, and was constantly being sent home for being a bad influence on the school."

After Eton, Henry moved to London and became a professional session drummer. It was only after his mother's intervention that he moved into TV production. "My mum had gone into this TV production in Winchester and said her son would work for nothing. She said to me 'darling I don't think you should be in rock n roll, this company makes lovely television.'

"I was 19 when they interviewed me and this bloke Bill asked where I'd been to school. I said Eton and he gave me the job - at £100 per month - on the spot. I asked if I needed any qualifications and he said no, we just want the chance to order an old Etonian around.

"Soon after that, I saw this picture of a dude in Vietnam with ray ban shades, a spliff in the corner of his mouth and a camera on his shoulder, hanging out of a helicopter in Vietnam. I thought, 'that is fucking me and so I trained as a news cameraman at the company.

"I spent the 80s incredibly stoned. Bill moved down to London and offered me 10% of a new production company instead of wages and we started up Straight Face Films. We were making pop promos, pop videos, and Channel 4 documentaries. "We were successful, but at that time I was a heroin addict. Bill, my business partner didn't really know that, he was out of it most of the time as well. He was tragically killed in a road accident in 1986, which completely put me off the rails. The drugs got worse and I lost a lot of friends to them."

Henry can name the precise date he became clean - August 26th 1988 - and hasn't taken drugs or drink since. "After I cleaned up, I started a new production company which is still going today. I was making a lot of TV commercials and my new business partner Peter suggested I make a movie. The only thing I knew well was my life as a drug addict and the whole Chelsea set, so we made Mad Dogs for £1.8 million.

"It was the worst experience of my life; the scriptwriter was fucking useless, even though he had been doing movies for years he couldn't write a letter. It's an awful situation to be in, when you've always dreamt of making and directing a movie and then you actually do it at the age of 31, and it's the worst nightmare of your life. It took a year to make and it was horrific because I was young and wanted to be nice to people so I was quite happy to compromise the whole time."

Originally, Henry cast Ewan McGregor to play the lead role but the American vetoed that and imposed American actor C. Thomas Howell as the lead. "This freak I've never seen turns up, he was just like a total nightmare, a wanker. Anyway I had four weeks to go before shooting and I had no leading lady, no Antonio. We had gone through every single leading lady in England but to no avail, they weren't right or unavailable, We looked at Serena Scott Thomas, Patsy Kensit, Paula Hamilton, my ex fiancée - that was another nightmare. Then Liz Hurley, whom I'd seen in 'Beyond Bedlam' came into the frame.

She had this presence, when she walked into our office, everyone just stopped what they were doing, and so I thought fuck it, why not? Then came the 'Four Weddings & a Funeral' premiere when she wore that dress. The next morning the LA producer rang me, 'fucking hell man you have just struck gold, this ain't gonna be an art house movie, this is a commercial movie. We are going to make a fucking fortune.'"

A friend of Liz Hurley's, Henry is quick to defend her, "Liz is fantastic to work with, I don't know why everyone's on her case constantly, and she's made it worldwide. Whatever you say you can't take that away from her, she's a shrewd cookie, really smart and manipulative. She's so funny and smokes fags like they're going out of fashion, there's something in her that drives her."

Massively hurt by the terrible reviews of Mad Dogs, only now does Henry believe he's got out of movie jail. "Straight after Mad Dogs I bought out my partner, it just wasn't working and that's the company I still own today. I started writing a movie script as a hobby whilst we were doing all the TV stuff. Now I don't care how things turn out, but I am planning to start filming at the end of 2002. The film's called 'Danny' and it's about this loser in Neasden whose alter ego is John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. I'm not giving any more of the plot away!"

Now preferring domestic bliss in Kensington to his turbulent past of drink and drugs, Henry wouldn't want to live anywhere else, and thinks living south of the river is like living in Sarajevo. "I spent a year in Brixton, it's horrific, and there's an air of danger there, though when I was living there I had no trouble at all. But when I move back to Kensington I get mugged on the first day."