The ex-cricketer and lapsed comedian have found new work in politics and TV respectively, but they are trading off old successes and even older opinions
It’s easy to find out when Ian Botham last played cricket, because there is Wisden, but it’s hard to find out when John Cleese was last funny. Some people think he had some moderately amusing lines in A Fish Called Wanda (1988). There was a period in the 2010s when he had an idiosyncratic vendetta and went around town saying “Michael Palin’s travel show” and then yawning, which a small niche found rather tickling.
It would be fair to say it’s not a recent body of comic work that has recommended Cleese for a Channel 4 show about “cancel culture”, any more than it is Botham’s sporting career that equips him to be the trade envoy to Australia for “global Britain”. They have been drafted in for the vibes.