Maverick moviemaker set to make a return to advertising: Lisa Campbell talks to the director who changed the look of British advertising. (Newsmaker/Ridley Scott).(Ridley Scott)(Brief Article)

He's a cigar-smoking multimillionaire, auteur of five box office hits and the man behind Apple's legendary" 1984", which some still dub "the best ad of all time". Yet surprisingly, Ridley Scott is not the arrogant Hollywood hotshot you might imagine.

Although he has worked in Los Angeles for more than two decades, the 63-year-old has retained his Teesside accent and, with it, the attitude of a no-frills Northerner (apart from the Montecristos). He is affable, approachable and softly spoken, although he did admit to feeling a little peaky at the time of our interview.

It was the morning after the proverbial night before -- the premiere of Scott's latest blockbuster, Black Hawk Down -- and he had been out partying until 4am. This kind of behaviour is quite out of character for Scott, who in his inimitable chuckle claims: "I got over those things called nightclubs some time ago."

A self-confessed workaholic, the director professes to spend his evenings watching films, especially after a long day on set, and although he lists Michael Powell, Orson Welles and contemporaries such as Francis Ford Coppola among his influences, he now looks for new talent and techniques within smaller films and commercial advertising. For example, he unearthed his latest cameraman, Slavomir Idziak, by watching less mainstream fare such as Krzysztof Kieslowski's The Double Life of Veronique.

It is this focus on the craft of filmmaking, and particularly the attention to lighting, which helped Scott change the face of British television advertising back in the 60s.

Until that point, directors specialised in high-key lighting; Scott introduced a diffused and more realistic look. At first, it terrified agencies, but soon became the standard by which other directors began to operate.

However, Scott admits that he has learnt to balance his famous perfectionism with pragmatism.