“Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Spike” appeared on BBC Two on Tuesday, March 28, 1989, in celebration of Elvis Costello’s new album Spike, which had come out about a month earlier. Here’s the Radio Times synopsis of the program:

Elvis Costello, formerly known as “pop’s Mister Angry,” spills the beans about his strange encounter with “Spike the beloved entertainer” and the record he was forced to make to celebrate the event. In a no-holds-barred interview with The Late Show’s Tracy MacLeod, Costello comes clean about his years of rock ‘n’ roll madness, the dark secret of a roving singer-songwriter, and the true identity of the mysterious Spike.

I don’t know about “comes clean”—it’s true that Costello is on his best behavior here, thoughtful and expansive about the creative impulses that led to the album. It’s much, much more like a master class workshop than a confessional, and thank Satan for that! In typical humble/not-humble fashion, Costello likens himself to winning “a race of pygmies” when it comes to writing lyrics, although presumably that does not apply to Paul McCartney, who cowrote two of the songs on the album, including “Pads, Paws and Claws,” of which Costello gives us a little version during the interview.
 

 
To illustrate a point about the themes he was pursuing on the album to interviewer Tracey MacLeod, Costello seizes his acoustic guitar and jumps into the final verse of “Deep Dark Truthful Mirror.” Other highlights include intimate performances of “God’s Comic” and “Let Him Dangle” as well as an in-depth discussion of “Having It All,” a tune Costello wrote for Julien Temple’s 1986 movie Absolute Beginners that he explains was inspired by Cole Porter’s “True Love” as well as the old classic song “Scarlet Ribbons” that Harry Belafonte made famous. (The song didn’t make the movie; you can find the solo demo of the song on the bonus disc of the Rhino/Edsel reissue of King of America.)

I get the sense that this video isn’t hugely known, but it’s certainly an essential document for all fans of the original Napoleon Dynamite.

Unfortunately the program is cut up into 6 parts—however, whoever uploaded it was scrupulous not to cut the musical performances. It’s still very watchable.

Part 1:

 
Part 2:

 
Part 3:

 
Part 4:

 
Part 5:

 
Part 6: