JOHN CLEESE has finally appeased the Germans, more than 30 years after his goosestepping performance in Fawlty Towers.

Unlike Basil Fawlty, his alter ego, the actor is a keen Germanophile and is playing a prominent role in three projects designed to encourage a World Cup free from xenophobia and bigotry.

These include sponsoring a children’s essay-writing competition called “But Don’t Mention the War”, contributing a matching World Cup anthem and starring in a comedy football film for German television.

The song, which is available from iTunes, tackles more delicate territory than England’s official World Cup ditty, World at Your Feet by Embrace. It calls on football fans to concentrate on the game and abandon outdated prejudices, even if the Germans “bombed our chipshop 60 years ago”.

The essay-writing competition has been organised by the German Embassy in London, and offers prizes for the best 3,000-word essays about modern Germany written by British students.

Cleese, 66, has also joined a host of famous names from the world of politics, sport and the arts in The Art of Football, a light-hearted documentary for German viewers.

Appearing alongside a German comic he performs sketches inspired by the “humour, history and general strangeness of the world’s most popular game”. Bono, Ronaldo, Franz Beckenbauer, Nelson Mandela and Günter Grass, the German author, also contribute to the Fifa-endorsed film.

Cleese said: “I’m delighted to help with trying to break down the ridiculous anti-German prejudices of the tabloids and clowns like Basil Fawlty, who are pathetically stuck in a world view that’s more than half a century out of date.”

Cleese has spoken in the past of his fondness for German writers such as Hermann Hesse and Thomas Mann. “I think the German contribution to literature and philosophy is extraordinary, and to music and science is enormous.”

Cleese has always maintained that the notorious sixth episode of Fawlty Towers ridiculed a certain type of Briton’s refusal to forget the Second World War, not the German characters themselves.

Wolfgang Ischinger, Germany’s football-loving Ambassador, has joined the mood of reconciliation. He said that the World Cup would present a new image of funloving Germans and “show that the clichés and stereotypes of the old days are no longer relevant”.

The war may be off limits, but German television does not forget other losses. Paired with Cleese’s film is The Third Goal, ZDF’s high-tech look at the disputed third goal against West Germany that helped England to win its only World Cup in 1966. German teams have won two World Cups since then.

'YOU STARTED IT. YOU INVADED POLAND'

In the most celebrated scene in The Germans, a wild-eyed Basil Fawlty takes a dinner order from a party of German guests. Fawlty, played by Cleese, has reminded his staff: “Don’t mention the War.” But he is suffering from the effects of a blow to the head and struggles to heed his own advice.

When Fawlty takes their order as “two egg mayonnaise, a prawn Goebbels, a Hermann Goering and four Colditz salads”, one of the furious guests asks: “Will you stop mentioning the War?” “You started it,” replies Fawlty. “We did not start it,” the man responds.

“Yes you did, you invaded Poland.”

IS THIS THE SONG TO HEAL THE WOUNDS?

Don’t Mention The War
Don’t mention the war
That’s what football is for!
In 1966 we were the winning team
We’d rather not discuss what happened in-between
Don’t mention the war
Just get out there and score
At the glorious moment
When the lions roar
Don’t mention the war
Don’t mention the war
That’s what football is for!
They might have bombed our chipshop 60 years ago
But a billion pints of lager later, here we go (come on then!)
Don’t call them rude names
It’s such a beautiful game
At the glorious moment
When the lions roar
Don’t mention the war
Don’t mention the war
Bend that ball round the wall Instead of saving
Poland we are scoring goals
After 40 years of extra time and bacon rolls (bacon rolls!)

copyright The First Eleven