John Cleese has landed himself in hot water after he mocked an Australian TV host, asking if his Arabic name was “an anagram”.
The comedian, 83, appeared on Aussie talk show The Project on Thursday to promote his forthcoming string of Australian tour dates for his live show An Evening with John Cleese.
As his appearance came to an end, host Waleed Aly admitted he couldn’t help but ask the British TV star about series Fawlty Towers, which Cleese is in the process of rebooting.
Aly said: “We can’t let you go without talking a little bit about Fawlty Towers. At least I can’t. I think it’s one of the greatest…”
Before he could finish his sentence, the Monty Python star interrupted him, and said: “I don’t want to talk about Fawlty Towers. You can talk about Fawlty Towers,” and jokingly turned his chair around.
Aly and his co-hosts Sarah Harris, Sam Taunton and Liz Ellis saw the funny side, until Cleese turned back and made a dig at the presenter.
Cleese said: “What kind of name is Waleed, anyway? Is it an anagram?”.
Aly look confused, but quickly responded: “No. It’s just Arabic. I take it your Arabic’s not great.”
The comic then added: “I tried to learn it once. There’s about four Hs and two Ks.”
The Standard has contacted John Cleese’s rep for comment.
The awkward exchange comes after Cleese shared details about the Fawlty Towers reboot and said it will be “hugely different” from the original, which ran on BBC Two for two series in 1975 and 1979.
In 2019 the show was named the greatest British sitcom of all time by a panel of television experts for Radio Times magazine.
It was confirmed earlier this year that Cleese and his daughter, Camilla Cleese, would be rebooting the show.
The new series will explore how the dramatic and cynical Basil navigates the modern world.
It will also see Basil, and a daughter he has just discovered is his, team up to run a boutique hotel.
Actor Rob Reiner, his wife and actress Michele Reiner, director and producer Matthew George and Derrick Rossi are executive producers.
Cleese added: “It’s going to be very different because if it’s in the Caribbean it will be a multicultural cast which will be very interesting. And my daughter Camilla will be playing the woman who’s running the hotel.
“So there will be nothing visually or in terms of characters that anyone’s ever seen before, it will be a brand new attempt.
“There’s no attempt to copy it, you’ll see something completely different. I think it will probably be quite funny. Probably funnier than some of the stuff out there.
“So the fact that it won’t be as good as Fawlty Towers doesn’t bother me, because if we were operating on that principle, I should have done Fawlty Towers and then retired.”
