UK comedian John Cleese is negotiating with Seven to make a series of documentaries in Australia. Picture: SAM RUTTYN

“I may be completely wrong but it looks to me as if the whole world is falling apart, in every area, in every way,” he said.

“Wherever I go it’s all about money — Christopher Hitchens may blame God about everything, I blame greed.”

The veteran comedian, who is currently touring Australia with his Monty Python colleague Eric Idle, also expressed his intention to move to Australia for six months of each year with his wife Jennifer Wade, 44.

MICHAEL PALIN REVEALS PYTHON RIFT

JOHN CLEESE LATCHES ON TO SAM ARMYTAGE

John Cleese would be keen to live in Australia with his wife for six months of the year. Picture: Sam Ruttyn/ News Corp Australia.

However he’ll be unlikely to reside in Melbourne given how similar the Victorian capital’s weather is to Britain’s.

Cleese made a memorable and candid appearance at the Melbourne Press Club on Thursday night alongside ABC broadcaster Jon Faine, discussing the current state of the media. While the more controversial parts of the talk were off the record, he did agree for part of the evening to be reported and recorded.

The 76 year old’s documentary series was partly inspired by the ostentatious displays of wealth by Arab playboy millionaires in London, whose parade of expensive supercars around Harrods have become a tourist attraction: “In my own beloved Britain — I don’t know if it’s beloved any more, London certainly isn’t — it’s now all about money.”

Monty Python’s John Cleese and Eric Idle are touring Australia. Picture: John FederSource:News Corp Australia

Another inspiration was US presidential hopeful Donald Trump — who famously said: “Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score”. The series will explore why people want money and power for the sake of it — something Cleese, who considers himself well off rather than rich, cannot fathom.

Cleese also spoke entertainingly about press intrusion into his private life, his famous Twitter war with Piers Morgan (which he’d tweeted was spelt “Big ‘M’ small organ”) and his many issues with The Daily Mail.

He revealed he was about to start work on the second volume of his 2014 autobiography, So Anyway, to be published in 2018.

EMAIL: andrew.fenton@news.com.au