John Cleese

Horrible arrogant man I ve always thought he was a nasty piece of work now he wants to start stirring just when the country is divided enough
Every capital city is cosmopolitan just as it should be, he can go out to the quaint English villages if he wants more ‘Englishness’ and leave our capitol to be the vibrant fascinating rainbow city that it is full of interesting people from all over the globe
Go back to beating your car you horrid man

As the saying goes, ‘ Life tarries not backwards ‘
Of course it’s still an ‘English city’ it’s inhabitants have always been multicultural ,and now there are a few more .
The important thing Imo is for All cultures to be fair & tolerant of each other. The problems arise when one culture try’s to dominate another.

TBH I don't think the man is right in the head. I've always thought this. There are a few more like him as well !

Depends what you understand by “typically English”
Dick van Dyke’s cheeky Cockney chappie?
City gents in pinstripes and bowlers?
Salt of the earth Pearly Kings and Queens, or 1950’s Debs’ delights?

I would dispute that LONDON was ever “typically English”. It has for centuries been a multi cultural melting pot - from the Huguenot silk weavers, to the Eastern European refugees, to the Jewish migrants, to the Bangladeshi inhabitants of Brick Lane. Probably starting with the Romans and, a century later, the Normans!
It is nothing like a Cotswold village or a Yorkshire moor or a West Country cream tea or a Fenland landscape.
I think OP is living in a fantasy world as close to “English” as “Brigadoon” is to the real Scotland.

Isn't he just trying to justify his relocation to a Caribbean island? It is essentially a racist comment and he should realise that everywhere is very different from when he was a boy! Perhaps the people on Nevis will claim that the island isn't the same since the wealthy Brits arrived.

All so-called " celebrities " get on my wick. Jumped-up nobodies who forget where they came from and only got where they've got through sticking their necks out and hob-nobbing with those who had the influence. The " don't you know who I am " brigade. Cleese being no exception.
It always gladdens me when we see another side to such characters as sooner or later it comes out into the open.
I imagine there are very few who are " themselves " !

I agree with you Ellan sometimes they talk such rubbish. I was reading about the actor Rob Lowe saying that watching Prince William 'letting himself lose his hair' was one of the most traumatic experiences of his life. Methinks Mr Lowe hasn't had many traumatic experiences.

Good grief ?

Mawbroon, good post. I arrived in London in 1970 - it was already a fabulous mixed city - with different areas with more of one group - and this is the reason I fell head over heels in love with it... and later with Leicester.

Gentrification has had a much more negative influence on London than immigration, for sure.

Video about 'not living here' ...

www.facebook.com/bbccomedy/videos/10154671713551778/

Anyhow, back to Cleese - bumbling old fool has lived for a long time in Santa Barbara California and now in the Bahamas - ruining both- bumbling old fool.

Palin still got it though.

I agree Ginny42 the arrogant man is just trying to justify his move to Nevis.

Of course London is an English city - just not the same as other English cities, same as New York is an American city, Paris is a French city , but distinctive in character.
Cleese is one of those expats looking through the rose tinted specs.

Londinium built by those pesky Romans
'What did they ever. Do for us??

Strange he has only just noticed that London is multi everything!

... and that his co actors who remained in Londond don't seem to mind at all.

That's a lovely post Mawbroon. Sums it up so well.

Hear hear bluebelle!

Nostalgia is the curse of this Nation; who DO we think we are!

The title of a great book OH bought in UK recently, very interesting:

Who do the English think they are? From the Anglo-Saxons to Brexit.

by Derek J. Taylor (www.thehistorypress.co.uk)

I wonder if John Cleese's comment is more about places not being what they were, or our own experience and memory of what they were, rather than anything else.

We all know that everything changes, nothing is the same as it was when we were younger and the pace of change seems to be accelerating and sometimes that can be be very disconcerting and quite challenging.

While I am very aware of apparent implications of racial or cultural bias I do think that, sometimes, it is the very basic issue of change itself that is being raised rather than what sort of change is involved.

I have always felt he was lucky to have latched on to much more talented people and then clung to their coat tails for most of his career.

He is a bitter, unhappy man who doesn't seem to see the irony in complaining about London no longer being an English city when he has himself lived in other countries for many years

He may well be a total prat (I have absolutely no idea??) but John Cleese has given me so many laughs over so many years that I'm inclined to be very lenient. I'm am still laughing at Python skits, Life of Brian and Fawlty Towers all these umpteen years down the track. Pretentious! Moi?

www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=stuart+lee+coming%27+over+ere

Here's another take on people "coming' over 'ere". It was a sketch performed a while ago when Paul Nuttall was in the ascendant, but Stewart Lee's observations are still relevant.

Warning: there are two swear words which some people may find offensive.

As someone else has said, John Cleese will also be an immigrant to another country, and is going there to, in his words, better his lifestyle.