John Cleese calls BBC comedy executives ‘clowns’ after frustrating meeting

Actor said bosses were ‘stupid’ for being too concerned with causing offence

Fawlty Towers star John Cleese has branded BBC comedy executives “stupid” and “clowns” after he was left frustrated by an ideas meeting with the broadcaster.

The 85-year-old actor who starred as Basil Fawlty in the popular Seventies sitcom, claimed one executive left the meeting early and the one who remained was “one of the most stupid men I have ever met”.

Cleese said the pair weren’t interested in his comedic ideas but were instead looking “for Basil Fawlty on a shop or something”.

“It was a hopeless idea but they seemed keen on it,” he added.

“I wanted to say to him: ‘You have absolutely no idea what you’re doing,’” Cleese told former BBC newsreader Michael Buerk in an interview for Radio Times.

He said: “Young writers go and see this clown and assume, as he is the one who commissions the programmes, he knows what he’s doing. “The people in charge now have no idea at all. The writers deserve better than this. The British people deserve better than this.”

The actor said that the last BBC show he loved was Ricky Gervais’s The Office, which first broadcast in 2001 and concluded in 2003.

Cleese claimed BBC commissioners are so concerned with political correctness and fearful of upsetting audiences that it clouds their judgement when looking at new work.

John Cleese has dubbed BBC comedy executives ‘clowns’ after a frustrating ideas meeting (Getty Images)

“We are a long way from the days when a BBC director-general would say: ‘There are some people one would wish to offend,” he said. “Now they’re too influenced by the passion and nastiness of the extremely woke.

“A huge slice of comedy is put straight into the fridge because executives don’t want to get phone calls at dinner. They don’t seem to realise you tease people, you’re rude to people that you’re fond of.”

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Jon Petrie, the BBC’s director of comedy, said the genre “has been having a blinder” despite funding issues at the BBC Comedy Festival in May.

He pointed to the 21 million people who watched the final episode of Gavin & Stacey on Christmas Day, as well as the success of shows including Ludwig and Amandaland.

Cleese announced plans to revive Fawlty Towers alongside his daughter Camilla Cleese in 2023, but a broadcast partner for the project has yet to be announced. Its last episode aired in 1979.