Mike Tyson arrived through Heathrow yesterday babbling about how much he likes Manchester, which is strange because he needs all the publicity he can get on this trip and Manchester is one place he is not going to. He then left for Merthyr Tydfil, not the most obvious of destinations, but only after going via Sky News, where he received a right royal mugging as the top item live on the 11am news.

Mike Tyson versus Dermot Murnaghan; that was a match-up we never thought we would see. Murnaghan took it easily and Tyson was furious.

Tyson is in England to do four nights of “theatre shows” in which he will talk and answer questions about his life. His recent life story suggests that the raconteur his punters will find is an infinitely more mellow version of the “baddest man on the planet” persona they have come to know.

This was certainly what Murnaghan was getting at when he pressed Tyson, asking if he was a changed man. To which the interviewee responded: “I guess I did change because I’m not assailing you, but you’re irritating me right now.”

Irritated thus, he then set off for Wales. This was interesting because his first official engagement on this trip is at the Civic Hall, Wolverhampton, on Wednesday night. The reason for heading west, though, was because Wednesday is the anniversary of the death of Johnny Owen, the former European, Commonwealth and British bantamweight champion.

Owen died from injuries suffered in the ring in his challenge for the world bantamweight title 29 years ago. When Tyson knew the dates for this trip, he insisted that on Wednesday he would visit Owen’s home town of Merthyr Tydfil and lay flowers at the foot of his statue.

While his personality may have fluctuated wildly in the 25 years he has spent in the public eye, one of the few constants has been his love and appreciation of boxing history. Tyson has watched Owen’s last bout and he knows it well.

Another constant that, it seems, will never change is the nervous frisson around him. It was certainly there at Heathrow Terminal 4 on Tuesday morning when his plane arrived from Houston, Texas. News filtered through to the arrivals hall: “He doesn’t seem happy.” “He’s tired.” “His bags have arrived but he’s sat down.”

Waiting for him was a small group including Jimmy Clyne, the Scot who has been running this tour, and Andy Booker, a former miner from Doncaster, who met Tyson in a café in Catskill, New York, in 1983, and has enjoyed the most bizarre of friendships since. The last time Tyson was in England, on a tour of similar speaking engagements, he went round to Booker’s house in the mining village of Askern, where Booker’s mother cooked them Sunday lunch. They even went to Booker’s local pub for a drink.

Tyson, for the record, had ginger ale.

Nevertheless, Booker seemed as nervous as anyone when Tyson did eventually arrive, with his wife, Kiki, their nine-month-old daughter, and a nanny in tow. Early questions, asked by camera crews gradually reversing towards Tyson’s car, covered the subject of David Haye and his chances in this weekend’s heavyweight title bout. Tyson’s reply was: “I’ve never seen David Haye fight. I’m just here to do dinners.”

The entourage then left for Sky News, where the expectation was some nice friendly questions to help to sell those dinners (tickets still available).

On arrival, Tyson was warmly welcomed, staff asked to have their pictures taken with him and then he sat down, live on TV, with Murnaghan, who asked him about the recent death of his four-year-old daughter and his conviction in 1992 for the rape of Desiree Washington.

Murnaghan’s interview was long and wide ranging. On subjects such as politics, the influence of Barack Obama and American policy in Afghanistan and Iraq, Tyson coped well. But that old nervous frisson was certainly back when Murnaghan pushed him on the rape charge.

Standing side by side, watching all this in the green room was an exultant news editor admiring Murnaghan at work, next to Clyne and Booker, who swallowed heavily as their faces went increasingly pale.

There was a time, as Tyson pointed out, when he might have been more inclined to set upon his interviewer rather than answer his questions. In a somewhat softer interview with Oprah Winfrey in the United States two weeks ago, Tyson confessed that if he returned to his old life — a reference to general excess where drugs, womanising and bankruptcy are concerned — then he would not survive another two years.

Now aged 43, rehabilitated and suffering from jet lag, Tyson’s response was to tell Murnaghan that he was irritating him and to repeat his eternal defence: that he was innocent of the rape and had been the victim of a set-up.

Washington, for the record, quickly, disappeared from public view. She is said now to be studying for a doctorate in Arizona.

Tyson will progress tomorrow from Wolverhampton to Belfast, Maldon in Essex and then Cardiff. His events will be Q&A, albeit probably not Murnaghan-style, though you suspect that nowhere will he be more at peace than today in Merthyr.

There was a time when Tyson would arrive on these shores and hordes would swarm the airports, when tickets to see him needed no promotion and to reference his record as a rapist would be to take your life in your hands. The volume is turned down now, everywhere. He likes it most, it seems, when it is near-on silent.