I met John Cleese in the Shelbourne Hotel Dublin, one of the world's greatest living comics in his only Irish radio face-to-face interview to promote his autobiography 'So, Anyway...'.

Cleese talks candidly about his childhood, his difficult mother, his four wives and how he realised he was funny at nine years of age. He remembers performing his first 'sketch' in school - which was basically an impression of his then teacher's behaviour, delivered in the format of a weather forecast. "The other kids seemed to like it," he recalls.

Despite the facts that his lower-middle class upbringing didn't lend itself to a career in the arts, he put his parents minds' at ease when he got a job at the BBC - which they regarded as an extension of the civil service.

The 75-year-old comedian / actor also talks about Monty Python, Fawlty Towers and how humour has evolved over the years. While he believes that his ability "to make people cringe" was probably what made Fawlty Towers so successful, he also admits that equally it rubs people up the wrong way.

He also revealed how he falls in love with what he considers the "proper culture" in Ireland each time he visits but he is not looking for his fifth wife.

On Saturday on Under the Covers at 8am there will be an extended version of this interview.