John Cleese reveals he 'took LSD aged 65' to know 'what is was all about' as he recalls 'terrifying' ten minutes

Daily Mail​

28-04-2025

John Cleese has revealed that he 'took LSD aged 65' as he admitted that he wanted to know 'what is was all about'.
The Faulty Towers star, 85, explained he was 'surprisingly ignorant' when he was younger and was never interested in taking drugs.
But in 2005 he allegedly tried the powerful psychedelic drug, lysergic acid diethylamide, while under supervision.
The drug is believed to 'alter a person's perception of reality and vividly distort the senses and is a fungus that grows on rye and other grains', according to CAMH.
He told The Times' Weekend magazine: 'I just wanted to know what it was all about.
'The man was one of the world experts on it so I felt perfectly safe.
'I got scared for about 10 minutes in the middle, and he and his wife saw me through that, but it was extraordinary to realise how fertile the human mind is.'
It comes after John admitted he agreed to the West End production of Fawlty Towers due to the financial security it would bring him.
John wrote BBC Two's Fawlty Towers - which was broadcast from 1975 to 1979 for two seasons - with his ex-wife Connie Booth, 83.
In a candid interview, the comedy legend revealed he agreed to do it, after refusing to do it for years, so that he no longer has to fly economy.
He told The Times: 'But this is about getting myself a nest egg, so I can get a place in the sun. Because I have a problem with British weather.
'And if there's a crisis, you can throw money at it. That's the best thing about money.
'The next stage is to have enough not to have to fly commercial. I'm 6'4' and I find flying absolutely awful.'
The comments come after it was announced last year that the actor is writing a new television show set in the Caribbean, which will see Basil's daughter who has worked in hotels all her life, embark on a new job and enlist the help of her father.
He is also working on a musical and a non-musical version of Monty Python's Life of Brian, plus another comedy film about cannibalism.
Faulty Towers is a 12-episode sitcom is based on a real-life hotel owner, Donald Sinclair, who ran the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay and the couple became fascinated with his incredibly rude behaviour.
John was married to Connie, 83, from 1968 to 1978 after they both met on the comedy circuit while studying drama in New York.
The couple co-wrote and starred opposite each other in both series of Fawlty Towers with Connie playing the chambermaid Polly Sherman - although they divorced before the second series was finished and aired.
In 2020, the BBC removed an episode of Fawlty Towers from UKTV over 'racial slurs'.
Titled The Germans, Cleese's hotelier upsets a German family with constant references to the Nazis.
Despite the controversy, John confirmed the new West End production of the classic 1970s sitcom will include the scene in which a delusional Fawlty, suffering from a head injury, continually brings up the Second World War.
It's been 50 years since the first show was first recorded at the BBC studios in December 1974.