When I got there he handed me a letter, which he had been given upon arrival, even though he was still extremely ill at that time. To give you the background, he is temporarily being kept in the private patient unit at Epsom General Hospital because some of the NHS wards are being refurbished. The letter is written by Gaynor Hammond, the Private Patients Business Manager. 

I won't bore you with the whole thing but highlights include: 

The first paragraph stating: "Your placement on the unit is purely temporary."

The second stating: "Transfers can take place at anytime of the day or evening...you may find that your transfer could be at night."

Thankfully she states, "If you wish to remain on the unit you would need to change your status to private. However once you make the decision to become a private patient there is an expectation that you will remain private for the balance of your stay and not change your status back to NHS because of the cost. We ask for a £3,000 deposit."

Can anyone tell me if this is normal? 

At first, the man in the hotel lobby seems lost. He squints into the middle distance, glances at his watch, and gives the impression he is waiting for an incredibly important lunch date. He pastes a fake smile across his face, and says hello with only the vaguest sense that his mind is in the room. 

After being seated at a decent table in the hotel restaurant, however, Jerry Springer snaps to attention. In the flesh, Springer is less polished than the plastic talk show host made famous through 19 years of his eponymous Jerry Springer Show, now broadcast in 40 countries worldwide. But as befits a man who can entertain some 25 million viewers an episode, 65-year-old Springer can still exude a certain old-school showbusiness polish. His confidence stems from his repeated successes in life: as a lawyer, politician, television anchorman, talk show host, and now potentially, West End star. He is currently playing Billy Flynn, the sleazy lawyer, in the musical Chicago at London's Cambridge Theatre. 

“I am used to being in front of an audience, so this is kind of exciting…my, look at the weather,” he says. The weather? “I was trying to distract you,” he laughs, glancing at Bob, the huge ex-forces security guard who shadows Springer's every move when the talk show host is in the UK. The charm offensive has begun. “When I sing, people get involved. They have to guess where the notes were supposed to have been. It’s like a community effort. The three songs I have to sing they have put on an iPod so I can just sing along in my own time.” I ask if he does a “Rex Harrison”, talking the lines rather than singing them. Springer turns to Bob. “Hey, Bob. He wants to know if I can sing. He says do you sing it or do you talk it? It’s a fair question, though.” A flicker of disappointment passes across his face. "I do my best." 

In 1968, Springer began his professional life as a lawyer, practicing in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was a member of Cincinnati City Council between 1971 and 1977 (he resigned in 1974 after he was found to have paid a prostitute, though was re-elected in 1975). In 1977, he served as the city’s mayor, and became a local news anchorman four years later. 

“They invited me to do the job because they were last in the ratings and came up with this idea; I had been mayor and I knew the city. I hadn’t even thought about journalism until that point, to be honest," he says. "I mixed reportage with commentary; though I was careful not to sneer. We became the top rated news programme and that was how I was offered my talk show.” 

In 1991, when The Jerry Springer Show was first broadcast from its base in Chicago (it moved, this year, to Connecticut, where its producer NBC-Universal receives favourable tax breaks) the programme was almost respectable. Springer invited on guests like Colonel Oliver North, the US political commentator, and Jesse Jackson. But, stuck with a format that seemed too similar to the other hosted chat shows on the market (Oprah Winfrey springs to mind), the programme makers decided on a freakier turn. Episodes have since included gems like I’m Pregnant by my Brother, Part 2, My Boyfriend is a Girl and I Married My Horse. Edifying stuff. Springer admits that he wouldn't watch it - "it's not aimed at men in their 60s, but if I was in college I would love it" - but won’t have you call it “tabloid”. He is extremely defensive of how he makes his millions, and chooses to draw attention to the indiscretions of the mainstream press. 

“News is tabloid," he insists. "News tells stories about people against their will. Reporters never say, 'If this story is going to embarrass you, or hurt your family or your career, we won’t write it.' But on our show people do everything voluntarily. Our guests can use different names if they like. They can decide what we film, and can come up to us afterwards and ask us to cut a certain part out of the show. It is real. People have a certain snobbery towards our show, because we don’t show rich or good looking people. But it’s the truth of what is going on in the world.”

The show – which seems in such conflict to Springer’s more serious, political past – is just the latest episode in the television presenter’s varied life. Gerald Norman Springer was born in Hampstead on 13 February 1944. His parents, Richard and Margot, escaped Nazi Germany in 1939 days before Hitler invaded Poland (some of Springer’s died in Auschwitz). His parents left for the US when Springer was just five, in 1949. Going from immigrant, to lawyer, to politician - has he ever felt his life is just him playing a series of different characters?

“No, I’m not playing a character when I am doing the show,” he says. “I do one thing, say, if I am making a serious political speech. I would do another if I go to temple. If you asked me to stand up there and tell jokes," he says, gesturing the hotel foyer, "I will stand up there and tell jokes. I would never do anything in the show which would make your mother ask what I was doing. No one reasonably well-educated would stand up there and start cursing, or be confrontational. I am not a confrontational person. If someone comes and starts talking to me they generally like me.” 

As well as the prostitute story in his early life (Springer came clean, and the electorate re-elected him, apparently for his honesty), in May 1998 The News of the World published a photo story which apparently showed Springer having sex with US porn star Kendra Jade the night before she was due to appear on screen with him (he still does not confirm or deny the story to this day, and rumours abound as to how this has affected his marriage his wife, Micki). How does he cope with all this conflict in his private life? “I have never met a person who is one dimensional,” he says. “I judge myself by my buddies and we are all alike, certainly when you get us all together at the weekend. You wouldn’t be able to tell who did what – the doctor, the lawyer, the entertainer…what makes it so difficult for people to understand about me is because my sides are all so public. I have had so many public personas. I know if you see a politician on holiday they will be telling dirty jokes in private. I am no different to anybody else.”

That he blends into the background like an everyman is possibly open to debate. The time has come for Springer to have his picture taken. He saunters outside to a small alleyway behind the Soho Hotel, and strikes a medley of poses - including the classic, quizzical "Who me?" that he has made his trademark. A window on the second floor of a nearby office block opens and a thirty-something man sticks his head out. “Hey Jerry,” he shouts. Jerry looks up and smirks, then adopts a deep, New York accent. “How YOU doin’,” he shouts back.

Hot Chip have teamed up with VICE magazine to find a new up-and-coming creative talent to perform alongside them at Creative Sense5, a cross-disciplinary event to be held at The Arches, London, on 4 June. For more information see http://www.viceland.com/creatingsense5/ 

There's no great story. I think they thought we would be good people to ask to judge the competition and curate the night. We've always been a band that's interested in different kinds of art, kind of cross-disciplinary. I guess they thought we would like to dabble...

You guys must feel like granddaddies of electronic music by now.

In terms of pop bands we have been around for a long time now; many people come and go. I don't know about our longevity from now on, this business is fickle. You don't know what makes people see you as relevant or interesting. It's just healthy if you don't rest on your laurels. We do realise how fleeting it can be, and learned a little about how it all works. 

How's your relationship with EMI? 

Our label is in a weird place. All the people we used to work with at EMI don't work there any more. We don’t really have much contact with the label. There are new people assigned to work with us, which came during the period that we started working on the new record. We have had no reason to deal with the label. We will speak with them a lot more when we are releasing the next record. We are happy like that. Even with our previous A&R guy we gave him the tracks and he would make suggestions and then we'd be on our own. We are self-contained really and happy like that. It’s five of us and an engineer in a cheap studio working on things and experimenting. 

Why do you work with charities like Crisis; how does it fit into your work ethic? 

We don't put much back really. We are lucky with our career. We get to travel around the world. Our carbon footprint is enormous, and we make reasonable amounts of money. We get approached by a charity to do a gig or DJ and it's not hard for us to do. We are all very hard working. We always have lots of things on the go. I used to work at Island Records before I stopped to do the band full time. I saw when I was there that out of 100 signed acts around 10 make a good record. Five have career for a few albums. It made me hyper-determined to work hard at it and not give up and take opportunities to make money. If someone offers me a remix we say we’ll do it. It’s partly a strong work ethic. I feel like we are honing our skills as producers and remixers.

What are you listening to at the moment? 

 Who are you currently working with and how do you get on?

We're working with Kano. It's going to be exciting, though I've never met him. Hip hop is close to my heart. When I was 12 or 13 I grew up listening to the Wu-Tang Clan and Souls of Mischief. I'd love to try to recreate some of the things that made them great. We're also working with Little Boots, she's come round to my studio and I've met her after gigs in Brixton and stuff. I do want to meet with Kano and get to know him. It's the way of the world. You're too busy to do anything but answer emails.

Are you going to produce much more?

It's my first love. When I listen to records I listen to the production. I admire the auteur producers, Brian Wilson, Timbaland, the kind of people who craft sonic worlds. It also means I can stay in London and not move around the world. I don't want to come across like I'm ungrateful but I do want to have a studio and produce people. 

You've said you're going to be taking inspiration from Womack and Womack and Crystal Waters for your next album. Where did that come from? 

The idea I was trying to grasp for was that we are trying to write pop records that have longevity. It's a rare thing, to have a pop record that sounds great and is one of those gems that sticks around for 20 years afterwards. That's a wonderful thing. I was talking about longevity. Those are the records you need. Just look at Neil Young. He has this canon of songs that are covered by everyone. They are these wonderful works that are set in stone which stand test of time, that melodically sound beautiful 40 years after they have been written. Of course we are nothing like him really. We are just trying to craft pop music. It's the same with that Crystal Waters' track "Gypsy Woman" (She’s Homeless). It’s about creating those earworms...they don’t necessarily hit you over the head initially, but they just last. I don’t know how you aim to do that. And you can only tell whether you've done it over time.