Graham Kibble-White meets the lord of all he surveys in his flat...

Danny Wallace is in full flow: "If you could change things, if you could start your own country, what would you do differently?

"What laws would you keep? What would you get rid of? What would you nick from other countries? Would your country be any different from Britain? And is it possible to start one from scratch anyway?"

That was the thought process which went through his mind when he decided to embark upon his latest mad-cap scheme.

For the 28-year-old writer and presenter, who started his career writing computer games reviews for magazines, becoming king of his own country proved to be less of challenge than he first thought.

"The fact that it's possible to do this is what initially surprised me," he says, when talking about the origins of How To Start Your Own Country, on BBC Two from tonight.

"All over the world there are these kind of micro-nations springing up. Little empires, principalities and kingdoms.

"I'd heard about a place called Sealand which is a rusting war fort six miles off the coast. They've turned it into its own country, and they've got their own stamps, visas and a royal family.

"My mate and I were going, 'Wouldn't it be great to make a film about these guys and then just see what happens?'. But then I thought, 'Well, hang on. If they can start their own country, surely I can too'."

The results of Danny's efforts can be seen in this highly entertaining documentary.

"It was a voyage of discovery," he grins. "I just had to find my way through it and locate the people who were going to be good to talk to.

"I didn't really know what was going to happen when I met them, or what they were going to suggest. But talking to big experts, them taking me seriously and wanting to help me, was just great. You know, when you hang out with Noam Chomsky for a day, and he's going, 'What you need to do is...'. That's when you should start paying attention.

"While I was doing this, I realised I have an embarrassingly small knowledge of things I really should have known about - stuff I've been bluffing my way through for years. I think loads of us do it. We have all these high-falutin chats in the pub about immigration and all that, but actually we've got no idea."

So far Danny's country remains unnamed, and his kingdom is simply the flat he owns in east London. Nevertheless, he's upbeat.

"We're pretty much there," he says. "I just need to see if I can get proper international recognition. It's quite tricky convincing the major organisations of the world to take you seriously.

"Although the only land I have is my flat, that's about to grow through my website citizensrequired.com. People will be able to do all sorts of stuff on there. It'll be like the passport to get into my country.

"I have this idea of maybe getting folk to declare a room in their home as part of my country, so it becomes an embassy and they're the ambassador. We could slowly takeover Britain one spare room at a time."

Another facet of the show, Citizen TV, will give Danny's prospective subjects the opportunity to get involved more directly by pressing the red interactive button on their remote controls.

"Every week people can phone in and help me come up with policy decisions, award knighthoods and so on," he explains.

"Someone's already declared war on me. He claims he's the king of Slough, but I've yet to see any form of proof. He wants me to give up my country to him, so I'll get the citizens on board for that and try and get them to maybe wage war on Slough. It's certainly a worry."

Throughout his career, Danny has specialised in embarking on various bizarre quests, from combing the globe with his friend comedian Dave Gorman to try and find other people with the same name, to inviting strangers to call his mobile for a "polite conversation".

"I like all this high-concept stuff," he admits, "but I do lots of odd things all the time and most of them don't come off. That's all part of the fun, you just do a bit of nonsense. If it takes off, it's fantastic.

"If you can live your life having as much fun as possible and also creating little things, then that's a pretty good way to be."

Two of Danny's former projects - the Join Me cult which specialises in bestowing acts of random kindness on strangers every Friday, and Yes Man, in which he decided to say yes to every opportunity that came his way - are now being made into movies.

"Films take about 50 years, it seems," he says, "so it's the least instant thing I've ever done. But it's very exciting.

"Join Me looks like it's going to be quite a British film and Yes Man will be quite a broad American comedy. I've got virtually no power over either of them, but I want to make sure they use my real name.

"There's a Mark Wahlberg film, The Corrupter, and in that his character is called Danny Wallace. I'd love people to get confused and think Danny Wallace is a franchise like the James Bond films. First he started a cult, then he said 'yes' a lot and then he was a rookie cop in Chinatown trying to bring down the Triads. That would be great."

Despite his ambitions, for some he'll always be best known as the roving reporter on Richard & Judy who is trying to find the path to enlightenment.

"I love that show," he says. "I think it's one of the only programmes that reacts to events that are going on instantaneously. So they'll ditch 'Cats in Hats' - or whatever - for a chase on the M4.

"I think they're a really good team. They ask questions that are frowned upon by broadsheets, but actually most people don't know the answers to them.

"I'm not aware of all the details about Kosovo, so I need to know the basics. Who better to provide that than Richard and Judy?

"Initially I went on the show as a guest talking about Join Me, but they brought me back as a reporter and I was soon going around the country meeting monks and having vortex healings. It was really fun."