'Johnny' is a regular fixture on Lands Lane in Leeds city centre where he has been selling ice cream for more than 30 years.

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He is following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather before him who both had ice cream businesses.

Over the years Johnny has befriended everyone from ordinary punters to world-famous stars.

The 50-year-old lives with girlfriend Lisa and her three children in Roundhay.

Hew talks to Grant Woodward:

I've had some great times and met some great people thanks to this job.
I remember one day a few years ago when all the Emmerdale actresses came down and queued up for ice creams.
Then Alan Smith and all the Leeds United lads came down and did the same.

We were all having a laugh and it was brilliant.
I've got to know some of the Leeds lads really well over the years.
Lucas Radebe's a great bloke. If I was sat at home he'd drive round, pick me up and we'd go out for the night.
The best thing about Leeds is first and foremost the people.
Everyone here is so friendly and I always say it doesn't cost anything to be friendly.

When I see my regular customers it's like seeing a member of my family.
Leeds has changed a heck of a lot over the years.
The good thing is the city may have changed but the people haven't.
The one thing I couldn't live without would be my family, I suppose.
I'm from a big family and I've got four sisters.
My mum and dad spend a lot of their time in Italy now but we'll always be very close.
My first job after leaving school at 15 was as a trainee chef at Schofields department store, opposite where I sell ice cream now.
Then I went down to London to work but the cost of living was so expensive I came back.

My father had sold ice cream as a boy and he started up again in 1972.

I was working as a salesman in a gents outfitters at the time and he asked me if I wanted to run an ice cream van.
My childhood was a very happy one.

My parents owned the Hilldene Hotel in Harehills and as a kid it was great.
Friends used to come round and were very impressed.
My bedroom was in this huge converted cellar and they could choose whatever they wanted off the menu.

As a child you never appreciate it but looking back it was pretty special.

Years ago, when we had a pitch at Roundhay Park, Jimmy Savile used to come and help out if we were busy.
My mum ran a coffee shop there too and you would see him back there washing the dishes.

When he helped out on the van he'd say, 'Don't worry kids, everything's free today.'
He could tell some of the kids didn't have much money, so he'd buy them whatever they wanted.

He's a genuine guy.

I could be bankrupt by the end of the year.
People wouldn't believe how much we have to pay for a pitch here and the credit crunch means everyone's cutting back.

The last couple of summers in particular have been horrendous.
During the recession in the 1980s I couldn't make the business pay so I got a job as a school caretaker, selling ice cream at weekends and during the holidays.
It was a really tough time but after five years I was able to go back into it full-time again.

The last time I cried was when I dropped my dad off at Leeds-Bradford Airport.

He was flying back to Italy and I felt so guilty leaving him there on his own.

I'm not someone who cries very often but when I got home the tears just started flowing.
He was always a very fit person, very alive, and I was just seeing this little old man sitting there.
It felt like I was abandoning him somehow.

My first love was an Italian girl called Adda. I must have been about 13 I should think.

We'd gone back to Monte Cassino where my family's from for the summer holidays.

Sadly it only lasted a few weeks because I had to come back again.
If I could meet anyone it would probably be Madonna.
I like her as a person and she looks a lot like my girlfriend Lisa, who's a singer.

Karaoke nights are great round at our house.
The way I approach life is not to look too far ahead because you never know what tomorrow's going to bring.

I try to enjoy whatever life gives me.

I used to panic when the van broke down on a hot summer's day but now I just think, 'It could have been worse, you could have been run over or something.'

As long as you've got your health, happiness is what you make it.

My favourite jokes are the sort of ones you get on lolly sticks.
What happens if you throw a white hat in the Red Sea?
It gets wet.