John Cleese has launched a website to broadcast his own sketches in a bid to avoid working for other people.

John Cleese has celebrated his 65th birthday today by launching his own website.

He will broadcast exclusive material from a studio he set up in his Santa Barbara ranch, and cut out the need to travel to work.

In an introductory video on TheJohnCleese.com, he said: "If I think of a funny sketch in the morning, I write it out, my beloved assistant Gary will type it out, we put it on the Teleprompter and I read it off. I'll be doing that two or three times a week."

Urging people to pay the $50 (£27) annual membership fee he said: "You'll make an old man very happy because otherwise I have to keep driving down to Los Angeles and working in someone else's studio."

Doesn't your heart just weep for him? The former Python went on to say: "I love it here in Santa Barbara so I would rather sit here and make the thing work like a tiny, little television studio."

The venture wasn't without its setbacks thought - John couldn't have the domain name johncleese.com as it's owned by a lookalike.