On 'Why is there no hope?'

John Cleese is to address the Oxford Union on the topic of ‘Why is there no hope?’

The comic – who is set to return to TV for his first BBC sitcom in 40 years – has been vocal on a number of subjects in recent years.

He made a number of outspoken calls for Britain to leave the EU in the run-up to the referendum, called American Republican leaders ‘the most cynical, most disgracefully immoral people I’ve ever come across in Western civilisation’, and been very active in trying to curb the behaviour of the UK press.

‘Why is there no hope?’ is a talk he has been giving sporadically since 2009. In an interview that year he said: ‘A friend said it was fascinating because the more I destroyed people’s hope that this could ever be, in any way, a rational planet, the more they laughed.’

Cleese – a Cambridge graduate – will address the Oxford debating society on Friday.

Published: 14 Apr 2017