Cleese 'a second' away from fatal car crash

Veteran actor John Cleese is relishing being alive - after his chauffeur fell asleep and narrowly avoided a fatal crash "by about a second".

The Monty Python comic, 65, is now enjoying life to the full after he almost died when his sleeping driver almost crashed into another vehicle at high speed.

Cleese says: "I nearly died the other day. I was in a car travelling at 75 or 80 miles per hour and I realised my driver had fallen asleep.

"So I shouted at him and I think we avoided being killed by about a second.

"So it just shows that life's all a little more fragile than you think."