Delusional broadcast disorder has claimed its latest victim: John Cleese

The great affliction of our age makes men believe they have been cancelled by the BBC while they are literally on the BBC, writes Marina Hyde.

Handout photo of John Cleese speaking at the Pendulum Summit, a business and self-empowerment summit in Dublin. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Thursday January 10, 2019. See PA story IRISH Pendulum. Photo credit should read: Conor McCabe/Pendulum Summit/PA Wire

How very interesting to hear John Cleese explain how he’d be immediately cancelled or censored on the BBC, in comments made freely and at considerable length on Monday in the marquee 8.10am interview slot on the BBC’s flagship Radio 4 news programme. 

Explaining why he was about to become a presenter on GB News, the 82-year-old declared loftily: “The BBC have not come to me and said: ‘Would you like to have some one-hour shows?’ And if they did, I would say: ‘Not on your nelly!’ Because I wouldn’t get five minutes into the first show before I’d been cancelled or censored.”