A special evening with a review of John Cleese: Comedy meets TED Talk with a genial all-purpose groan

John Cleese embarked on a series of solo performances in the UK in 2011 entitled The Alimony Tour, undertaken to fund an expensive divorce. The first part of the evening was a foretaste of a new fundraising job for a very different cause – Hacked Off, the organization that fights for a free and responsible press, also backed by Hugh Grant and Steve Coogan

. a comedy show, but the format of his monologue Why There Is No Hope was more TED Talk than stand-up, with Monty Python's 78-year-old star pressing a tetchy autocut as he argued that many professionals , politicians on TV bosses, are often barely competent. He pointed to the strike of a New York doctor when death rates actually dropped.

Beside the experts, there were attitudes towards religion, soothing that kind, sensitive Jesus "was a snowflake". Most of his anger, however, was directed at the BBC. He claimed that they would not do Monty Python today because it does not fit their "social engineering project". A little rich since he recently played in the sitcom Hold The Sunset. On BBC One.

There was a lot of laughs to be had as he was discussing the nature of the ego and despairing of the lack of emotional maturity among the world leaders. Again, it is almost impossible not to generate bursts of laughter by showing a picture of Donald Trump on the screen referring to "total loonies" while running

He certainly gives good curmudgeon these days. While he lost the angular physicality of his Basil Fawlty era, Cleese gained a genius all-purpose grunt. The public clearly appreciated it by singing its praises during the Q & A session. But while they were devoted fans, they were hardly going to give him the Spanish Inquisition.