John Cleese has declared that he is leaving the UK as he is “so disappointed in this country”.
The Monty Python actor and comedian made the admission to the BBC’s Newsnight programme last night (July 10) as he complained about the “lying and triviality” of British newspapers.
Cleese plans to relocate to the “gorgeous” island of Nevis – which is located in the Caribbean – in November.
“I’m so disappointed with so much about this country at the moment,” he told presenter Emily Maitlis, before explaining that he’d been dismayed by how both proportional representation and the second phase of the Leveson inquiry into press standards had been “kicked out by right-wing governments”.
“I just thought to myself: ‘Right I’ll just give up and try somewhere else,’” he said.
After clarifying that his “particular beef” was with newspapers, Cleese then showed Maitlis a chart which purportedly showed EU figures on the UK’s low trust in its written media – see that moment below.
“It’s the lying and the triviality that I object to.”
This is John Cleese showing his trust in the written media chart per country… The United Kingdom is the lowest on there@JohnCleese | #newsnight pic.twitter.com/AQ1piN8Exe
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) July 10, 2018
Cleese, who backed Leave in the 2016 EU Referendum, said that the current debate about Brexit was “one of the most depressing things about this country”.
“There were dreadful lies on the right about all the money that would come into the National Health Service,” he said. “Very few people have any idea of what’s actually going to happen. Why’s everyone so passionate when they can’t possibly know what the outcome is?”
Last week, Monty Python‘s Terry Gilliam hit out at the BBC’s diversity plans, saying: “I tell the world now I’m a black lesbian.”