ITV apologise for John's 'bastard'

ITV has apologised after John Cleese swore live on today's This Morning.

During an interview to promote his new memoir, he jokingly referred to fellow Python Michael Palin as 'a bastard'.

Presenter Phillip Schofield immediately apologised for the slip, prompting Cleese to joke that he thought it was fine to swear after the nine o'clock watershed.

Cleese asked: 'Why? It's nine o'clock isn't it?" and Schofield replied, "Yes. Yes. The wrong one. It's all right at the later nine o'clock."'

Cleese then revealed he had genuinely misunderstood the rules, saying, 'What? Really? You can't swear before nine in the evening?'

The word 'bastard' was cut from the on-demand version of the show on the ITV Player – but, oddly, not the apology, making it unclear what Schofield was saying sorry for.

Cleese also revealed that he was saving stories of Python and Fawlty Towers for a second volume of memoirs, saying that the relationships between the Pythons was 'savage and vicious'.

Published: 13 Oct 2014