Oh bloody hell, mates. We’ve been nodding off as far as Pete Doherty news is concerned. Major props to Seriously OMG for first noticing that Doherty has spoken with MTV News to deny claims that he overdosed recently in Austria:

I know that was absolute rubbish, I was in Austria, I mean between me and you like, it would’ve been lovely to have enough stuff but there was nothing about, to be honest it was a really clean week and it was complete rubbish.

A clean week, eh? Well, everything is relative as well as derivative, so onto the next tidbit. Up from the ashes, Peter appears to have gotten over his previously articulated hatred of the Daily Mail and has granted the English redtop an interview as well as an exclusive photoshoot. We’re guessing their price was right, mates:

A mop of tousled brown hair followed by two wide, round eyes peer out over the window sill. Then it bobs back in. A minute later Doherty creaks open the old oak door and blinks in the mid-afternoon sunlight. He is dressed; a white shirt with tight black jeans. Close up, his wide eyes are clear and his skin looks remarkably unblemished, if waxy.

The hired E-type was to make the right impression; Doherty has a thing about old Jags. And I have baubles: the sort of Dior Homme suit he likes, white dress shirts and a black scarf for the shoot. He can keep them afterwards. How about it? He cocks his head to one side and considers.

‘Well then, you’d better come in,’ he smiles.

Where Doherty is concerned, free clothes are, apparently, worth entrance into his home:

Hanging on a dark wooden coat rack is the brass-buttoned scarlet Irish Guards jacket that Doherty wore when he was in the Libertines. To its left is a poster of Sid Vicious and next to that, behind cracked glass, a framed Babyshambles gold disc for 100,000 sales of their debut album Down In Albion.

Doherty has been here for eight months. Tall and gangly, he sways through the house to the drawing room and gives a commentary in a sing-song London drawl.

He waves by way of demonstration in the general direction of an antique desk, a small, dusty black piano and a bookcase beside the fireplace, on which is a biography of legendary QPR player Stan Bowles (Doherty regularly attends their home games), a book about one of his favourite TV sitcoms, Steptoe And Son, The Books Of Albion (a volume of Doherty’s handwritten diaries) and various classics. Beneath the bookcase a copy of Jean Cocteau’s Opium is perched on a chaise longue. On the wooden floor are some of his 13 cats and their litter trays and food bowls.

‘It’s all owned by a fella called Lord Cardigan, who is a member of the aristocracy. I haven’t actually met him yet, but there have been a few stern emails saying, “Can you get rid of the bonfires?” which we did. And, “Don’t let any journalists into the house!”

He cackles hoarsely.

‘I have got a problem at the moment with the estate manager. He thinks I’m ruining the house. Well I’d just like to say to him, don’t believe the things that are being written.

‘Anyway, you’ve come down here in a lovely car with some nice free clothes. I can’t really say no, can I?’

We wander back out of the drive and he admires the E-type.

‘Can I take it for a spin later?’ he asks.

I say, ‘Yes of course you can.’ I think I will never actually hand over the keys of a hired vintage car to Doherty and smile as he accelerates off into the distance.

The interview is then interrupted, and the next dozen attempts are either canceled or interrupted as well. Two months later, the journalist finally pins Doherty down:

In the studio in north London, Doherty bounces off the walls like a pinball. He has the restless mania of a caged animal.

His hyperactivity is making me anxious. For one thing, I can’t believe he is actually here, having spent the past nine weeks of my life chasing him around Britain since we last met.

For another, every time I think we are going to begin, Doherty suddenly bounds up distractedly. He’s like an exuberant child, constantly on the move: one moment leafing through the stylists’ clothing racks, the next picking up a guitar and strumming tunes.

I point out to him that, having tracked his dizzying progress over the past two months, it seems that he’s still constantly on the move. I can only assume that he has an attention deficit disorder.

‘No, I don’t think I’ve got that, or in fact any disorders.’

Then, the words finally begin to spill forth from Doherty, including discussions about how he’d never get back together with Kate Moss (but does acknowledge that he’s still quite hung up on her), how Blake Fielder-Civil believes that Amy Winehouse hasn’t cheated with Doherty, how his Army major father who disowned him, and how his son is fascinated with Kylie Minogue’s boots.

Read the full interview and check out the rest of the photoshoot as well.