Rather disconcertingly, Ben Browder seems to be unaware of how the concept of interviewing works. "How are ya?" he asks, before I've had a chance to say anything. "How's Blighty these days?" Er, it's very nice. Quite sunny at the moment, actually. "Oh good. I'm glad to hear that. That's just the climate, not the political climate. A-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho," he says, with a fake laugh. There's a war on at this point, you see. "It's all very complicated. Or maybe it's really simple, I'm just refusing to see how simple it is. But it seems to me to be the path we've been heading down for the last, oh, 50 years?" he chuckles. "I was trying to explain war to one of my children the other day, and it's a hard one to explain. When you have difficulty explaining something to your child, you know it's a complicated subject matter. 'Daddy, why do you kiss that other woman on TV?' 'It's complicated... That's what I do for a living."'

Is that enough explanation for them? "They like Claud [Claudia Black]," he laughs. "They're probably cognisant that what I do is pretend, because in addition to kissing women, pointing guns at people, blowing up things, killing thousands of people is another one to explain; actually, it's slightly more difficult to explain away. Although I have to say that kissing women was much more difficult to explain to my grandmother when she was alive." He switches into a broad, croaky Texan accent. "'Ben, you're a married man, you shouldn't be kissing them women on TV'. 'Okay grandmother, I gotcha. That's what I do for a living.' 'What does that make you, a whore?"' He throws in a sigh. "'Well basically, grandma, I think you're right, that's what I do for a living, I'm a whore."' Actually, now he's brought it up, would he get paid more if he was in that particular line of work? "You know, I've never stopped to figure that out. I don't know, I guess it depends on how long I'm actually doing the kissing. On a per-hour basis I'm stretching it out probably less..."

I wonder if he's ever had one of his kids ask if they can swap their real Mummy for the nice lady off the TV. Oooh man, I hope that never happens. Ha ha haaaaa! That would be very bad. I've been using the line lately that Mummy's evil. I just point to the TV and prove it. 'Mummy's evil, look, see? She's evil. This is what it's like in the morning before the make-up comes on."' Francesca Buller, Browder's wife, was playing Ahkna, the latest of several Farscape roles, at the end of the fourth season. "That's the first time she's gone in with no make-up! " insists Browder unwisely, before adding, "No, Fran's brilliant. She's brilliant as War Minister Ahkna. It's great when Francesca's on set. What's interesting, though, is that all the crew would call her 'The Boss'. 'Is the Boss working today?' 'Yes, my boss is working today'."

Well, we seem to have finally reached the subject of Farscape. "You'd better ask some questions, otherwise I'll go off and be talking about the weather and the political situation, and there's probably not much you're gonna want to print," warns Browder. "Y'know, if I had an opinion I'd tell ya," he says when I suggest a box-out on war. "I'm afraid I'm not firm in my opinions on this one. There's a crapload of grey area on both sides that needs addressing, and I honestly believe that. I've listened to arguments from both sides, I understand the arguments from both sides and I see the validity of what it is they're saying, but like most things with passion, which war really is, there's not much room for discussion. I don't think you can make logical arguments. It's gotta be the most absurd activity that Human beings engage in, mass conflict. My God. It boggles the imagination."

In the meantime, since the demise of Farscape, Browder has had auditioning to keep him busy, but it's not all plain sailing. "Well, Farscape is either the best calling card in the world or the most useless calling card in the world. People who know the show, who are aware of the show, are pretty damn enthusiastic about it: 'Oh, love the show! , And the other response is 'Far-what?' It's not on everybody's radar. When it's off the radar in Hollywood, it just doesn't matter. I really can't complain because at least it's been interesting."

On the subject of Farscape's conclusion, there was a lot of talk of Season Four alienating new viewers, thereby causing the lack of ratings improvement that would have rescued the show. "I think that the numbers indicate we came out relatively even on that score. It was a desire from the network to reach a broader audience, so we started with fewer characters and rebuilt and reintroduced the show. That led to a frustration storytelling-wise for some of the long-term audience. We were working on a two-season plan, not a one- season plan as far as advancing the big story. So where we end up at the end of Season Four, we're halfway resolved on a number of issues. Whether we handled it well or not, I don't know. I couldn't say." Does Browder knows what was to come next? "I know some of the plans, yeah, yeah. I know a fair amount of the character stuff, yeah, I'm certainly aware of it.

"[Producers] David Kemper and Ricky Manning and Rock O'Bannon could tell you the plan; we're not obligated not to tell you, but I don't think it serves any purpose for me to tell you what the plan was because I think the hope is that at some point the story will continue; the audience will get to find out then. I would hate to be accused [by the fans]: 'He lied to us when he said this was the plan!' Depending on when it's told, that could change. It depends on what future incarnation of Farscape evolves; that is dependent upon somebody with a bagful of money figuring out that there are a lot of people that still wanna see more of the story.

Having said that, I think there is a certain poetry in the way that Season Four ends. If it is the end, I think there's great poetry in that finally you have a moment of happiness, and just like Farscape, wham! They get killed. Not just killed, shattered. Reduced to crystal shards."