Cleese has been giving interviews for six decades, and if he had such attitudes he would have been even more likely to express them in less sensitive times. I think it matters that his reaction has more to do with culture than race. London has had a substantial multi-racial population for decades, but in the past few…

I’m not sure how you liked my response, considering that you didn’t seem to understand it. Why should Cleese suddenly become racist when London has been multi-racial since the 1970s? And unless there is no such thing as English culture, people who have recently arrived in London from other countries would of course…

I don’t think there are surviving cast members of “Are You being Served?”, alas.

To explain is not to excuse. But I don’t think the issue is simply racism—London has been a multi-racial city since the 1970s, if not earlier. When I was there last year I reckoned that about a third of the accents I heard were not British. Unlike Cleese I wasn’t bothered by this, perhaps because I’m not an old man…