Monty Python star John Cleese joins GB News to present 'free speech' show

John Cleese, a comedian best known for being part of the Monty Python troupe, is launching a new show with GB News.

The former Fawlty Towers actor will be joined on the show by co-host Andew Doyle, a writer and comedian.

Speaking to Radio 4's Today programme, the 82-year-old claimed he'd never heard of the channel until editors invited him to join with a show that will discuss "cancel culture" and "woke politics".

Although Cleese had tweeted earlier in the year about the channel, expressing concerns about its funding, he said: "The whole point is, is it free speech or not? And after I start the show, we will find out."

He also suggested that Monty Python sketches - considered a hallmark of British comedy - wouldn't get commissioned today due to their content.

"It's six white people, five of whom went to Oxbridge," he said.

"But the point was they made a programme that a lot of people liked. The right wing didn't like it...The Daily Telegraph ran a piece saying 'was Monty Python ever really funny'."

Cleese has made several comments about both what he describes as "woke" politics and the state of the country over the past few years, including in an interview with the BBC's Newsnight, in which he claimed the British press was the least trusted in Europe.

"This country has sunk to the lowest intellectual level ever," he concluded this morning.

"I don't think the country is in a good state at the moment."

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