JOHN CLEESE TO FRONT A NEW SHOW ON GB NEWS

JOHN Cleese is to front a new TV and radio show on GB News, he announced today.

The 82-year-old told BBC Radio Four he was looking forward to hosting a new one-hour programme on the channel.

Mr Cleese said he was attracted to the idea of working on a platform which promoted free speech.

GB News is expected to confirm more details of the programme shortly.

Speaking to Amol Rajan this morning (MONDAY) the Monty Python legend said: “I was approached and I didn’t know who they were. And I don’t know much about modern television because I’ve pretty much given up on it…and then I met one or two of the people concerned and had dinner with them and I liked them very much.

“It’s a free speech channel and I am working with a young fellow, Andrew Doyle, who’s a stand up comic.

“Well, the nice thing about talking to the GB News audience is that they may not be used to hearing the sort of things I’ll be saying. I mean, the BBC have not come to me and said ‘would you like to have some time on our shows’, and if they did I would say ‘not on your nelly, because I wouldn’t get wouldn’t get five minutes into the first show before I’d been cancelled or censored!”

Asked if he felt Monty Python would still be commissioned today, Mr Cleese added: “Well about four years ago the guy in charge of light entertainment said he wouldn’t commission it now…

“If people enjoy something, then the BBC should be making more of it. And if people don’t enjoy something, they should probably make less of it, but their job is to produce the best possible programmes.”

Mr Cleese also hit out at the current state of politics saying he was no longer a member of any party.

He said: “I find the whole thing is such a confusing mess after that appalling debate on Brexit, when I thought this country had sunk to the lowest intellectual level I can ever remember.

“And I kind of lost interest and I do spend a lot of time away anyway. I mean, I’m always travelling. People say where do you live? I say I live in hotel rooms. I’m in hotel rooms ten months of the year, so I’m interested in a lot of political things everywhere but I don’t think that this country is in a good state at the moment.

“In fact, I think the last three Tory administrations have been progressively more and more disastrous.”