Monty Python star John Cleese to host a show on the right-wing British channel FR24 News English

"Monty Python" star John Cleese is set to host a regular show on the right-wing news channel GB News next year.

The 82-year-old actor unveiled his new project on popular BBC show 'Today' Radio 4 on Monday morning. "I was approached and didn't know who they were," said GB News' Cleese, who moved to Britain in 2021. "I don't know much about modern television because I I practically gave up on it. “I mean, English television. Then I met one or two of the people involved and had dinner with them and liked them very much.

"What they said was, 'People say it's a right-wing channel, but it's a free-speech channel,” explained Cleese, who works on the show with political satirist and comedian Andrew Doyle.

"The good thing about talking to the public about GB News is that they don't maybe isn't used to hearing the kind of things I'm going to say," Cleese warned.

The BBC, he noted, had not approached him to participate in any of their shows, but even if they did, Cleese warned, he wouldn't be interested. "I would say 'Not on your nelly'. I wouldn't get five minutes in the first show before it was canceled or censored," he said.

Cleese is also set to host a Channel 4 series on so-called 'cancel culture', entitled "Cancel Me", in which the actor addresses activists and victims of "cancel culture", including some famous faces.

Cleese, who has 5.7 million Twitter followers, expressed skepticism on many topics that often ignite social networks in recent years. Last fall he withdrew from a lecture at the Cambridge Union, citing concerns about 'woke rules' and an Adolf Hitler impersonation he had done in the 'Fawlty Towers' series he decades ago.

When asked by Amol Rajan of "Today", Cleese was asked what the threat was he felt for the "awakening". ” is our culture.

"In America, [it's] worse," Cleese said, noting that "the way people woke up from their campaign isn't very honest,” and referencing a radio interview in which he claimed a liberal activist said she was avoiding public debate.

"I'm an old-school liberal, so I always say, 'If we do this , there will be pros and there will be cons,” Cleese said.

As to whether "Monty Python" - which aired on the BBC between 1969 and 1974 - would be ordered today, Cleese was dubious.

"Well the guy who was in charge of light entertainment about four years ago said that he wouldn't order it now," Cleese said. "It's six white people, five of whom went to Oxbridge [Oxford and Cambridge university], but they did a program that a lot of people liked. The right did not like.

"I remember when we were at the O2 [stadium] playing in front of an audience of 16,000 people - the most amazing I've ever been in - and the Daily Telegraph ran an article saying, "Were Monty Python's Ever Really Funny?"

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