In the Wild – Lemurs with John Cleese
Production Details
The man who brought us the dead parrot sketch and the irascible Basil Fawlty has a soft spot for small furry lemurs. “They’re gentle, well-mannered and pretty and yet great fun … I should have married one”.
In 1998 Cleese raised money to release five black and white ruffed lemurs born in captivity, back into the rainforests of Madagascar. The US-bred lemurs were the first ever to be released into the wild. The hope was that they will eventually mate with native lemurs to introduce new genes into the endangered population. Now comes the difficult bit. John Cleese sets out on a 3-week trek to go and find them.
On his journey into the jungle he comes nose to nose with chameleons, bounds through the forest with dancing sifakas and shares dinner with the evil-looking aye aye. The expedition eventually takes Cleese on foot up to a remote forest in search of the captive bred lemurs. Plagued by a dodgy knee, but cloaked in the full armour of his inimitable wit, Cleese fights his way through the jungle against all the odds to catch a glimpse of these pioneer balls of fluff.
