Reluctant radio star John Cleese reveals how he turned to Twitter
ACTOR AND comedian John Cleese has revealed that his fellow comic Stephen Fry encouraged him to join Twitter before he amassed a following running into millions of fans.
The Monty Python star, 77, is an avid user of the social media site on which he has enjoyed spats with TV presenter Piers Morgan as well as launching attacks on US president Donald Trump.
Now boasting more than 5.5m followers, Cleese told the latest edition of the that Fry had encouraged him to sign up as a means of having an easy method of communicating with fans.
He said: “Stephen said to me: ‘You silly man, don’t you realise that if you have a Twitter following you don’t have to communicate with the public via the newspapers’?”
On Morgan, who Cleese once described as a “real third rater” in a barb on Twitter, he said: “I always thought he was an awful creep.
“I pretended that I hadn’t seen him in a restaurant but it didn’t work.
“He then asked me when I was going to be funny again.
“I just didn’t want to have an encounter with him and since then he’s been after me and I’ve been after him.”
The actor and comedian also spoke about his love for radio ahead of an upcoming BBC Radio 4 series entitled
which uses from his autobiography.
He said: “I’m not doing it for the money.
“Before anyone accuses me of that, I’m doing it because I’ve always loved radio and for 400 years I’ve been saying it’s the best medium.
Cleese, who has gone through three costly divorces, added: “But it doesn’t pay very well, so if you’ve got involved in things like alimony, it’s not the first medium you’ll run to to solve your problems.” The latest edition of the
is out now. extracts