John Cleese has taken aim at an Australian TV host, asking if his Arabic name was ‘an anagram’.

The legendary actor, 83, was appearing on panel show The Project on Thursday night to chat about his new show, An Evening With The Late John Cleese, when he made it clear he had no intention of engaging in conversations about his hit series Fawlty Towers.

At the end of the interview, host Waleed Aly said that he wanted to speak a bit about the sitcom.

‘We can’t let you go without talking a little bit about Fawlty Towers,’ the journalist began.

‘At least I can’t,’ he continued, adding: ‘I think it’s one of the greatest…’

But before he could even finish, John jumped in.

John Cleese has taken aim at an Australian TV presenters name (Picture: Ten)

‘I don’t want to talk about Fawlty Towers. You can talk about Fawlty Towers,’ he said.

The comedian then defiantly turned his chair around, refusing to engage with the panel before taking a sip of water.

All finding it pretty hilarious at first, Waleed and his co-hosts Sarah Harris, Sam Taunton and Liz Ellis couldn’t stop laughing.

Waleed Aly was less than impressed by the ‘joke’ (Picture: Ten)

But when he swivelled back to face the cameras and hosts, John decided he’d try and take his interviewer down a peg.

‘What kind of name is Waleed, anyway? Is it an anagram?,’ he said.

While clearly confused by the personal attack at first, Waleed then fired back.  

Earlier this year John announced Fawlty Towers would be coming back (Picture: BBC Picture Archives)

‘No. It’s just Arabic. I take it your Arabic’s not great,’ he quipped before the interview came to an end.

After running between 1975 and 1979, it was announced earlier this year that Fawlty Towers was being rebooted.

However, the plans quickly came under criticism, with some saying it was too precious to be meddled with and should be left alone.

When asked if it would be returning to the BBC, John said no because he ‘wouldn’t get the freedom’ to write what he wanted.

Cleese’s ex-wife and co-creator Connie Booth – who played Penny in the original series – also claimed she hadn’t been consulted about the new episodes either, saying she read about it ‘in the papers’.

The Project airs on Channel Ten in Australia.

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His ‘joke’ didn’t go down too well.