Even the tougher textures of David Matthews’s Vespers, extracts from which were given their London premiere by the Huddersfield Choral Society under Martyn Brabbins, had their problems: the organ’s flowing contrapuntal accompaniment tended to drown the finer details of Matthews’ vocal lines.Still, there were some unqualified successes. “Making television now seems like being Steve Davis; you may have remarkable skills, but what is the point of demonstrating them if you don’t need the money? If instead you sat in the garden sketching, you’d get more out of that. Any day when I feel I’ve learnt something new seems profitable. I’m very happy with my life – even though there are not enough lemurs in it.”Cleese expresses one other regret: that he was too busy to execute one of the world’s most elaborate gags.

“When Michael Palin was making Around the World In 80 Days, I had this plan to fly to Indonesia secretly and just walk past him. All those decades on the couch have perhaps encouraged a Californian “hang ten” approach to life. “If we do it next year, that would be the 30th anniversary of Python,” he continues “That would be a nice `closure’, as the Americans say. We’d be telling the fans, `go on enjoying the tapes, but we’re off’.”Just why is it that three decades after it first went out, Python continues to command this slavishly dedicated cult following? “It was just one of those things where a group of people got together and all hit a purple patch at the same time,” Cleese reckons. “At that time television was very stuffy, and we were able to make fun of the conventions You can’t do it any more because they’ve all been destroyed. I used to say it was like opening a gate on to a field that no one has been into before; there were all those lovely flowers to pick.”Critics have talked of “a hectoring, intimidating tone” in some of his work, but in person Cleese is much more poodle than Rottweiler. “Nobody’s going to go who isn’t a fan, and if they do, they’re fools.” The nightmarish vision of 10,000 Python-ophiles incanting the Parrot Sketch in unison heaves into the mind’s eye.

Everyone would say, `it’s quite good, but not as good as Fawlty Towers’.”Those fears have not stopped him talking about a Monty Python reunion tour next year, though “It’s a thing for the fans,” he explains. Things are often exciting at the start, but sustaining them is difficult.” He has never felt tempted to make another sitcom “That wouldn’t be a very smart move. “Unless the bank manager is breathing down your neck, when you begin to lose interest you should move on. One US network executive admitted: “we had terrible problems with the show until we finally figured out what was wrong. We got rid of that guy Bay-zil.” It is reported that one producer even suggested making a stage musical out of Fawlty Towers, an idea that makes “Springtime for Hitler” from The Producers seem reasonable.Finishing the series after just 12 episodes has guaranteed its immortality, but Cleese puts the decision down to a low boredom threshold rather than a stroke of genius. The average sitcom script is 66 pages long; a Fawlty Towers script had 135 pages Each episode contained 400 cuts, instead of the usual 200.