How does it feel to give an interview to a Catholic publication?

John Cleese (pictured): "The question slightly amuses me, but I see why I'm being asked that.

"I do have a very mixed view of the Catholic Church, because I think what happens to most religions is that after the initial spiritual height of the early generations ministering the religion, that spirituality slowly diminishes and the churches begin to take on an ordinary human egotistical aspect.

"For example, you have Christ's teaching, which is primarily of poverty, humility and tolerance; then 2,000 years later you have a Catholic Church that is very rich and very powerful and quite authoritarian.

"Similarly, I find it hard to believe that Jesus Christ would have regarded burning people alive as a correct interpretation of his Gospel of love.

"There can be a very large gap between the teachings of the founder of the religion and the people centuries later who are administering it.

"This does not mean that there are not some very fine people within the Catholic Church. I have known a couple myself and they work within the Church, trying to do the best job they can even if it is within a framework that they often cannot truly believe in.

"So, I have no worries at all about being interviewed by a Catholic publication because some of the people reading the interview will understand and probably be reasonably sympathetic to my views."

How would you describe your personal relationship to faith and religion, and its development?

Cleese: "I think my lifelong quest, albeit a very dilettante one, has been to try to find meaning. And I think that any such meaning that would satisfy me would have some element of religion about it.

"However, when I'm asked if I believe in God, I simply have to say I don't know what it means.

"I do believe there may be a real purpose in the Universe and I believe that there may be a force out there that people who have a religious experience contact.

"I think some people who have undergone rigorous spiritual training may contact that beneficial force more often than most of the rest of us are lucky enough to do.

"And I believe contact with that benevolent force is very beneficial to the people who manage it and even to the people around those individuals who manage it.

"Also, I don't think there's any question that some degree of stillness sometimes brings a spiritual experience which causes people's behaviour to become increasingly unselfish."

Did you ever think that religious people would one day regard ‘The Life of Brian' in a positive way? Read more

• Sebastian Moll has a PhD in Divinity from Edinburgh University and works at the Theological Faculty of the University of Mainz.

He labelled people who failed to see it as a critique of racist attitudes rather than an endorsement of them as "stupid."

"One of the things I've learned in the last 180 years is that people have very different senses of humour," the writer, actor and founding member of Monty Python said from his home in Los Angeles.

"Some of them understand that if you put nonsense words into the mouth of someone you want to make fun of you're not broadcasting their views, you're making fun of them."

On its official Twitter account, UKTV said it had "temporarily" removed the final episode of the first season of the short-run but legendary sitcom because it contains "racial slurs."

The streamer said the episode was under "review" adding "we want to take our time to consider our options for this episode."

Though no further explanation has been given, it is believed the offending scene is one in which the Major (Ballard Berkeley) uses the N-word three times while regaling hotel manager Basil Fawlty (Cleese) with a story about taking a woman to see a Test match featuring India.

"The Major was an old fossil leftover from decades before. We were not supporting his views, we were making fun of them," said Cleese, who knew nothing of the BBC's move until this masthead contacted him.

"If they can't see that, if people are too stupid to see that, what can one say?"

"Fawlty Towers has given a large number of people a great deal of happiness, why would you want to stop that," he added.

"It reminds me of the definition of a Scottish Presbyterian as someone who has a nasty, sneaking feeling that someone, somewhere, is having a good time."

Cleese was critical of BBC management for bowing to pressure to purge its catalogue of "problematic" material in the wake of global Black Lives Matter protests without assessing that material on a more nuanced basis.

"A lot of the people in charge now at the BBC just want to hang onto their jobs," he said.

"If a few people get excited they pacify them rather than standing their ground as they would have done 30 or 40 years ago."

He also questioned the wisdom of trying to make past cultural artefacts - Fawlty Towers was first broadcast in 1975 - conform to contemporary moral standards.

"Sir Isaac Newton had shares in the South Sea Company, which indulged in many different types of trading, and some of it, disgracefully, was slavery," Cleese said.

"So are we going to get rid of Newton's optics on the grounds that it's not really sound any more because he held shares in a company that dealt in slaves?"

"The Greeks in 500 BC felt that culture, or any kind of real civilisation, was only possible because of slavery - does that mean we should take down all the statues of Socrates?"

"Do you say we shouldn't be looking at Caravaggio's paintings because he once murdered someone?"

Despite taking issues with moves to cull offending items, Cleese expressed his support for the aims of the Black Lives Matter protest movement. Continue reading