By BBC Sport's Rob Bonnet

There is a view among some journalists that public figures should make themselves available for a verbal "kebabing" more or less at the drop of a hat.

In other words: any question, any time, any place.

That is not quite how I see it, but Australian swimming icon Ian Thorpe was not to know it as he arrived at Television Centre to meet the "Hardtalk" team for an in-depth interview.

The briefing beforehand had emphasised that he was sensitive to questions about his size 17 feet.

Ian Thorpe holds three world records

Famously, a female Australian interviewer had once tried it - though the inquiry was taken as implying an interest in whether he was similarly proportioned elsewhere.

Thorpe walked out and the interviewer was sacked.

So "don't mention the feet!" became the briefing's watchword - a variation on Basil's warning to Sybil about the war when Fawlty Towers had German guests.

Our interest in Thorpe was more wide-ranging.

About his feet, certainly, but only as they related to the allegations about Human Growth Hormone. About his criticisms of Fina, the sport's governing body, as they related to doping control.

And about balancing the demands of his public and private life.

But it was the simplest, most banal question, "why do you like swimming?", which fired the most fascinating answer.

Royal praise

What followed was an explanation that verged on the spiritual, a story which took you to an outdoor training pool in the rain and under lights and a sudden power cut.

Thorpe was left in the dark. But he did not get out.

Instead the confident steadiness of his stroke took him up and down the pool, his touch and turn in the blackness so assured that eventually he felt himself powering not through but across the surface of the pool.

The rain on his back was accentuating his feel for "oneness" with the water. This clearly was swimming "in the zone".

Thorpe praised the Queen but favours a republic

Ian Thorpe is 19. He spoke with the enthusiasm of a teenager but the maturity of a man who might have been retired from his sport for 10 years or more.

There were reflections on being in New York on 11 September, on Manchester's Aquatic Centre (good, but not excellent) and also of the Commonwealth Games themselves.

And there was talk of the Queen.

Skilfully, Thorpe picked his way around the delicate issues, praising the monarch but declaring himself for a change to the Australian constitution.

Why do I tell you this? Simply because sport needs more like him. He is charming, intelligent and supremely talented.

By no means all of our sportsmen are Thorpe's antithesis, but there are too many who are.

They and those around them should better understand the value of treating the public with respect via the media.

Which means they should be courteous, forthcoming and available. The media's duty is to treat them with respect in return.

With Thorpe this is unlikely to be a problem, though I did mention the feet.

But like Basil, I think I got away with it!