John Cleese is writing a comedy film about cannibalism

Friday 27th July 2018, 12:02pm

Hold The Sunset. Phil (John Cleese). Copyright: BBC
  • John Cleese is writing Yummy, a film described as 'a light comedy about cannibalism'

John Cleese is writing a comedy film based around the topic of cannibalism.

Speaking at a Q&A event to promote the US broadcasts of BBC sitcom Hold The Sunset, he said: "My greatest professional accomplishment will be a movie I'm writing now, a light comedy about cannibalism. It's called Yummy."

No other details are currently known about the project.

Hold The Sunset, in which Cleese plays Phil, the new boyfriend to widower Edith, is set to be shown in America via the streaming service BritBox.

A second series of Hold The Sunset has been commissioned by BBC One for 2019, although the Fawlty Towers star's relationship the BBC has soured since it was given the go ahead. He has used his Twitter feed to criticise comments made by comedy commissioner Shane Allen; and took part in a fractious Newsnight interview about why he is moving to the Caribbean to escape the UK press. Earlier this week he tweeted: "What little respect I had left for the BBC disappeared after their decision to appeal the Cliff Richard decision. They are no better than their unscrupulous print journalist colleagues."

In the short Q&A interview to promote the BritBox broadcasts, Deadline reports he also said "My greatest personal accomplishment is to have established a really good relationship with our cats."

It's not entirely clear how serious Cleese was being about his film project. Asked where he gets his humour from, he replied: "A little man in Cardiff. He sends it to me. He's just wonderfully funny... He told me recently they're not his ideas. He gets them from a lady in Swindon."

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