{"id":353594,"date":"2026-01-05T16:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T16:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/353594\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T16:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T16:29:08","slug":"john-cleese-turned-down-a-cbe-in-new-years-honours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/353594\/","title":{"rendered":"John Cleese turned down a CBE in New Years Honours"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  The actor achieved global fame as a co-founder of the comedy troupe Monty Python, starring in all four feature films.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  He is also widely recognised for co-writing and starring as Basil Fawlty in the highly acclaimed sitcom Fawlty Towers.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Mr Cleese&#8217;s other iconic parts include the friendly Hogwarts ghost, Nearly Headless Nick, in multiple Harry Potter films.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oxfordmail.co.uk\/news\/25730790.nigella-lawson-turned-obe-new-years-honours\/?ref=ed_recent\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Nigella Lawson turned down OBE title in New Years Honours<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/>John Cleese. (Image: CinemaLive)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  With the King&#8217;s New Year&#8217;s Honours list being announced for 2026, several famous names have resurfaced due to them turning down honours in the past.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  One of these is Mr Cleese, who declined appointment as a CBE back in 1996 before then rejecting the offer of a life peerage in 1999.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Turning down a seat in the House of Lords, he stated that he &#8220;did not wish to spend winters in England&#8221; and being a peer would be &#8220;ridiculous&#8221;.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Mr Cleese has spoken in the past about his love of Oxford, including in an exclusive interview with this newspaper back in 2017.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oxfordmail.co.uk\/news\/25738796.emma-watson-set-return-roads-driving-ban-expires-soon\/?ref=ed_recent\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Emma Watson set to return to roads as driving ban expires soon<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n    Stay connected to the heart of Oxfordshire for less! \ud83d\uddde\ufe0f<\/p>\n<p>Our Flash Sale is ON: get trusted local news for just \u00a36 for 6 months or \u00a326 for all of 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t miss out \u2014 subscribe now! \ud83d\udc47<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/RZQMIFMB3r\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/RZQMIFMB3r<\/a>\n  <\/p>\n<p>\n    \u2014 Oxford Mail (@TheOxfordMail) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheOxfordMail\/status\/1990709553571270756?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">November 18, 2025<\/a>\n  <\/p>\n<p>\n  He said: \u201cWell, I have a special place in my heart for Oxford Playhouse and a soft spot for Oxford, after all, Python was made up of two from Oxford and three from Cambridge.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;I came here with Footlights, and it was my first real taste of a live audience, performing there in 1962 with the likes of Graham Chapman and Miriam Margolyes.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;We were doing a sketch about reading football results with the wrong inflexions, and I suddenly realised &#8216;Christ, I\u2019m supposed to be on stage&#8217;.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;I hurtled down the stairs and landed on stage in the empty spotlight with the quip, &#8216;and just in, some late results&#8217;.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;I think it was my best ad lib ever, actually.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The actor achieved global fame as a co-founder of the comedy troupe Monty Python, starring in all four&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-353594","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}