John Cleese to complain over BBC interview

John Cleese has said he intends to put in a formal complaint about the "deception, dishonesty and tone" of a recent BBC interview he took part in.

The BBC World News TV interview covered cancel culture around comedy and his upcoming stand-up tour in Asia.

The Monty Python star tweeted that journalist Karishma Vaswani had tried to portray him as "old-fashioned, uncaring and basically harmful".

A BBC spokeswoman said it was a "fair and appropriate interview".

Actor and comedian Cleese said online he was doing the interview to discuss his stand-up shows in Singapore and Bangkok, but had instead been asked about why he was interested in cancel culture.

'Not the interview I agreed to'

"I replied courteously and in full I explained that if parents were over protective, it did not prepare children well when they entered the real and often not-very-nice world," he tweeted.

"She then asked a disjointed question, clearly trying to portray me as old-fashioned, uncaring and basically harmful."

He added that his response had been "totally ignored" by the interviewer, who had then asked about the pandemic and US comedian Dave Chapelle, who recently hit out against cancel culture.

Cleese then removed his headphones, as it was "not the interview I had agreed to," he noted.

"Karishma had no interest in a discussion with me. She wanted only the role of prosecutor. The BBC needs to train her again."

John Cleese rose to fame in the late 1960s as part of the surreal comedy troupe Monty Python

The BBC, in a statement, said the journalist had asked Cleese about his tour of Asia as well as exploring themes around cancel culture, which feature in his upcoming work including a Channel 4 documentary.

"This was a fair and appropriate interview which touched on topics that John Cleese has previously been vocal about as well as themes within his new tour," a BBC spokeswoman said.

"Our presenter is an excellent and experienced journalist who conducted the interview entirely within our editorial guidelines."

The pre-recorded interview had not been aired on BBC World News when Cleese spoke out about it on Twitter.

Cleese, who rose to fame in the late 1960s as part of the surreal British TV comedy troupe Monty Python, has found himself at the centre of debates around what is currently deemed acceptable in comedy.

Last month, he cancelled an appearance at Cambridge University after a visiting speaker was banned for a Hitler impression.

The star, who said he had done a similar impression on a Monty Python show, said he was "blacklisting myself before someone else does".

• Cleese blacklists himself from university talk

• Cleese attacks 'cowardly' BBC over Fawlty Towers

Last year he laid into the "cowardly and gutless" BBC after an episode of Fawlty Towers was temporarily removed from a BBC-owned streaming platform.

A 1975 episode titled The Germans was taken off UKTV's streaming service because it contains "racial slurs".