Comedy veteran John Cleese has revealed he is retiring from performing and penning sitcoms, as he feels he’ll never be able to match the success of ‘Fawlty Towers’.
He says he’s now devote his time to publishing a book on the history of comedy and holding classes on making people laugh, in an attempt to “teach young talent some rules of the game". He says he wants to become a “comedy professor”.
The 66-year-old has also spoken out about his criticisms of modern comedy, saying most TV shows are badly written and a majority of performers aren’t aware of the “basic principles” of comedy.
"It is very rare today to see someone with that grasp of old-fashioned comedy," he complains.
"The last truly excellent performance I saw was Eddie Izzard. But Ricky Gervais is also a match for the great American sitcoms," he says.
