The 68-year-old – who turned down a CBE in 1996 – has championed the conservation of lemurs for many years and now a new species of woolly lemur, the Avahi cleesei, has been named in his honour.

Cleese says: “I’ve had a species named after me.

"A Swiss guy discovered it. He called and asked if I will give him permission to name it after me. I would rather have that than a knighthood or peerage.”

The Avahi cleesei was discovered in Madagascar by Urs Thalmann of Zurich University in 1990.