1976: CLEESE on CLASS | Tonight | Weird and Wonderful | BBC Archive

"Trapped in a shell of lower-middle class… reasonableness and politeness."
John Cleese was at his best playing the both respectable but quietly seething everyman, and diffident patrician sociopaths. Here, he talks frankly about his anger, his strait-laced upbringing and abandoning his respectable Cambridge law degree. His then-wife Connie Booth and Tim Brooke-Taylor also offer insights into Cleese’s self-criticism and how close he is to Basil Fawlty in real life.
Excerpt taken from Tonight, originally broadcast on BBC One, Friday 20 February, 1976.
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[@jaymac7203]

We need more quintessentially British extroverts 😭😭 lol 😂

[@MichaelLoda]

What a gem video, in great quality. I love John Cleese, he and Michael Palin, just geniuses

[@Kathie-gh2we]

John Cleese: the master of turning class anger into comedic gold! 🎩😂

[@CricketEngland]

Imagine if Cleese had become a lawyer we wouldn’t have the Brilliant Fawlty Towers

[@hilaryepstein6013]

John and Tim's generation of Oxbridge writer/performers of the 50s and 60s are the best we've ever had I think. Lucky for us so many of them wasted their degrees. (Nice to see the old tube train too.)

[@borderlands6606]

@@joegibbs448 On the contrary, he's still pointing out how bonkers popular opinion is.

[@MichaelLoda]

How so?@@joegibbs448

[@Amalthea16]

Wonderful video, I love these archives of the Pythons, please upload more! I met Cleese in October last year, he was very cordial and pleasant. Definitely a special memory.

[@EdVanMeyer]

Monty Python - the greatest waste of higher education ever! - Great, superb comedy that is still great today.

[@swanvictor887]

seen this a few times, keep seeing new stuff each time: at 3.00 mins, I laughed when I saw him tease the camera man trying to follow him from across the street!

[@memofromessex]

He was 36 years old in the interview! These days everyone is so much younger - our adulthoods delayed by difficulty of affording a house and family.

[@sharpvidtube]

I'd still prefer that to corporal punishment and the far worse things that went on in schools, universities and at home. My dad had to leave home at 15, as he was constantly getting beaten up by his father, something quite common, just a few decades ago.

[@patavinity1262]

I would say that most young adults today are psychologically very infantile, and it has nothing to do with the difficulty of affording things.

[@Hysteria98]

@@patavinity1262 Doesn't help that the balance of life has tipped and now people are far too soft to discipline their kids, much less actually teach them anything. Now they're raised on the internet, which is not a place for children at all and never has been. Hell, most of the time it turns adults into immature children.

[@BigBlack81]

@@sharpvidtubeSeriously. I know some things were better in the old days, but many, MANY things were far worse. I don't have rose colored eyes; I much prefer the future, problems that we have coming notwithstanding.

[@BigBlack81]

​@harvardsmithdeangelo6905 What aspect of repeating the mistakes of the past entices you? To err is human, but to err in the future the same way you erred in the past, to me, means you have learned nothing. So why stay in the past if you have not learned anything for the future?

[@LloydBraun11]

He seemed so happy and at ease.

[@davidglow3]

Cheese has never be content or happy..He is a curmudgeon..Anti English,and enjoys living in right wing America.

[@alexfletcher5192]

Tim's contribution here is a constant reminder of another great comedy troupe, hell-bent on a certain path, with highly developed critical faculties. You wonder what percentage of modern comics - and comedy actors - make it to screen without that self-doubt today.

[@borderlands6606]

He was raised to believe in a life of incalculable tedium and modest riches, without ever pointing the fact out. When required, the same sensibilities marched into machine gun fire as though it were regrettable but entirely to be expected. John couldn't help cracking a smile at the prospect.

[@OlafProt]

Proof that student grants (not loans) were worth it.

[@kaitlyn__L]

Bring back student grants!

[@MrWidmerpool99]

I can *smell* that Tube carriage.

[@neilmcdonald9164]

R.I.P TBT😢🎩

[@atomictraveller]

that's my cider

[@Undermarysmantleforever]

Weird and Wonderful, good laugh at the end.😂😂😂

[@cushyglen4264]

He takes the tube home for lunch. Look how few people are on the tube. Lovely times!

[@jakecavendish3470]

John Cleese is 36. However this is 1976 so he looks 56

[@user-et6pj4db9s]

Even in a serious interview he manages to pull stunts during the intervening footage of him travelling, suddenly changing direction and then tripping over. Its boredom with the routine of interview protocol that fuels it and I can fully understand him doing it to surprise the viewer.

[@davemoore9901]

Connie Booth "we both knew his father really well" ????

[@joshslater2426]

John Cleese is without a doubt one of the best comedians and social commentators of all time.

[@frederiquecouture3924]

You are a Genius Class.

[@biegebythesea6775]

He's a cutie

[@dawnyWestScotland]

The best comedy actors! 😆☀️

[@LloydBraun11]

And writers.

[@nigelcarren]

"What's wrong with you... Don't they have dogs in Calcutta?" I would love to have witnessed the moment that line was born... I imagine Connie Booth being American was able to peer at the awful British class system and old colonials in a way that must have been a gift to Cleese.... a fabulous foil! 🇬🇧🏆🇺🇲 Edit: 'anyway' instead of 'in a way'

[@gump5ter01]

Joe pasqualli did a version of that joke. Was a long time ago before the internet Tho.

[@walkabout16]

In nineteen seventy-six, a voice resounds, As John Cleese speaks, with depths profound. Trapped in a shell of lower-middle class, Reasonableness and politeness, a fragile mass. From the stage of Tonight, his words take flight, Revealing layers of anger, hidden from sight. A man of respectability, yet quietly seething, In the throes of societal constraints, he's breathing. Cleese, at his best, in roles well played, Navigating worlds where boundaries fray. As both everyman and patrician sociopath, He mirrors life's absurdities, in aftermath. His upbringing, strait-laced and prim, Yet beneath the surface, emotions brim. Abandoning the law for comedy's embrace, A leap of faith, into the unknown space. Connie Booth and Tim Brooke-Taylor, they see, The self-criticism, the depths within he. Basil Fawlty, a character close to heart, Reflecting Cleese's struggles, a mirrored art. In nineteen seventy-six, on BBC's stage, Cleese bares his soul, in words that engage. A glimpse into the man behind the mask, In the Weird and Wonderful, of the BBC's vast.

[@Jimfowler82]

What a great clip of television. Modern television reduces my brain cell count, and I didn’t start with many

[@andydixon2980]

All the best intellectual comedians are overthinkers, self critical. Cleese and Gervais are both great observers of their time.

[@sharpvidtube]

Ricky Gervais seems unusual, as he doesn't talk about suffering from depression. So many great comedians have been bipolar, or talk about their bouts of depression.

[@scottandrewbrass1931]

Gervais ? "Intellectual"?😂😂

[@andydixon2980]

Well compared to Micheal Mcintyre he is. @@scottandrewbrass1931

[@biegebythesea6775]

Observers are not necessarily intellectuals. Larry David is a good observer, as are Seinfeld, Chris Rock etc.

[@PopPo-zh9up]

36 👀

[@alejandroalessandro7820]

Home for lunch on the tube?!

[@adamw116]

I used to be so impressed by the BBC, the variety of programming they seemed to offer from an Americans perspective, how different there shows were from what you saw on US! The subtlety of the way things were , the way shows were edited, especially with the documentaries. The monotone yet personable sounding voiceovers. It breaks my heart though to hear that the network ha become so politically biased and agenda centric. Just what has happened to Doctor Who alone is a travesty!

[@CricketEngland]

Seen this years ago when it was posted

[@user-th9kl4tk5c]

Benny Hill considered funnier than Monty Python by two TV stations --WOR and WLVI!

[@garymacdonald7165]

We need to investigate why people in the past used to be a lot funnier than they are now! Drugs?

[@9ramthebuffs9]

novelty. A joke can only be told so many ways. Its the same with music. In the 60s and 70s most guitar riffs and lyrics were new or at least newly derivative.

[@biegebythesea6775]

They weren't.

[@atomictraveller]

MKyoumustbewrongaboutthisimsure lodge?

[@alexfletcher5192]

Whatever we might feel about the elder Cleese, you could describe his path as two conflicting genetic inheritances. We know that his mother had very serious difficulties and I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that it contributed to what he became. And perhaps there's more than an element of that in his comedy heroes too.

[@Dovith]

Public high schools in England look like the private schools in the rest of the world!😂🤣😂 I wonder if they get hamburgers or pizza for lunch they are required to eat it with knife and fork😂🤣

[@9ramthebuffs9]

private schools are called public schools in england. Its one of those lost in translation things.

[@Tim.Weaver]

Yes, it must be confusing to people overseas because here in Britain the term "public school" actually means a *private* school, for some reason. Our publicly-funded schools are called state schools.

[@biegebythesea6775]

They ARE private school.

[@Dovith]

@@9ramthebuffs9 thanks for the clarification 👍

[@Dovith]

@@Tim.Weaver thanks for the clarification 👍

[@user-th9kl4tk5c]

Benny Hill considered funnier than Monty Python by two TV stations --WOR and WLVI!