Michael Palin has described the recent behaviour of John Cleese, his longtime collaborator in the comedy troupe Monty Python, as “bewildering”.
Cleese, who along with Palin, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam created the seminal 1970s TV series Monty Python’s Flying Circus, recently voiced support for the far-right political party Restore Britain.
“I trust this man [Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe] more than any of the other leaders,” Cleese wrote on X, formerly Twitter, last month. “In addition, he understands business better than anyone in the Labour party, and he knows about our farming.”
Cleese was also criticised for claiming that “traditional British values are under attack from Muslim belief systems”, though denied that he was Islamophobic, claiming instead that he was “Islamosceptic”. The Fawlty Towers star, who once lampooned Christian beliefs in the highly controversial Monty Python film The Life of Brian, added on X that “some Muslims cannot tolerate any form of criticism, even from someone who has made many jokes about Christianity”.
In a new interview with The Times, Palin was asked about Cleese’s recent political views, and whether the actor had lost his sense of humour.
“Some might say him backing Rupert Lowe and Restore is definitive proof he hasn’t lost his sense of humour,” Palin said. “John likes to provoke. He likes to stir things up. He’s a disruptor, and I don’t think he likes consensus of any kind.
“He’s got a very analytical mind but what I don’t think he understands is how it will be taken by people when they see this great satirist asking people to vote Restore.”
The interviewer then points to the irony of Cleese’s viewpoints, with the actor having moved to Nevis, a Caribbean tax haven, in 2018.
“You said that,” Palin replied. “But it is true and it is bewildering. That’s why I’d rather stay in the middle of all this, so I can observe it without being dragged in on one side or the other.
“John is so inconsistent, the only thing I am confident predicting is that he will never back Angela Rayner. But actually, you never know...”
According to Palin, he and Cleese remain “warm friends”, despite animosities elsewhere among the surviving Pythons.
Cleese and Idle in particular have exchanged public criticisms of each other, relating to personal disputes, and royalties from the Monty Python musical Spamalot.
Palin hinted that there had been some tension with Cleese surrounding his friendship with Cleese’s ex-wives. Cleese has been married four times.
“I have done things that John doesn’t much like,” Palin remarked. “Me and my wife [Helen, who died in 2023] were friends with all of John’s ex-wives and John didn’t much like this. I think he’d rather we dealt with just the current wife. But we liked them all, whereas John will take a more aggressive position.
“I think that sometimes he probably looks at my life and says, ‘I wish I didn’t have all these complications and could be like Michael, looking at things in a sort of detached way.’ But that’s not John.”
The Independent has contacted Cleese for comment.
