“What did the BBC do for me?” Romesh Ranganathan replays the company’s license fee application 1985 | BBC license fee

John Cleese’s 1985 BBC ad in which he asks a star-studded bar “What has the BBC ever given us?” One of the most famous examples of a company suing the public is the amount of licensing fees paid.

In the ad, Cleese complains to a waiter that he just bought his TV license. “Fifty-eight pounds for the privilege of sitting in your house and watching your TV. It’s diabolical. I mean, what did the BBC give us for fifty-eight pounds?” he says, before being patched by a succession of punters, from David Attenborough and John Humphreys to Terry Wogan and David Jason.

Now, more than 40 years later, as the company intensifies its campaign to renew the charter that allows it to operate, it has rebooted the ad with a new musical version fronted by Romesh Ranganathan and directed by Dougal Wilson, the man behind Paddington in Peru and John Lewis’ Christmas ad campaigns.

The comedian plays a disgruntled license fee payer who rants in EastEnders’ Queen Vic bar to a host of household names including Chris Martin, Claudia Winkleman, David Jason and Greg James.

The comedian then goes on a song-and-dance tour of the BBC shows and services, which feature around 90 famous faces, from Alan Carr to Cate Blanchett, Hey Doggie to Clive Merry.

The BBC is facing what its director general, Matt Brittain, recently described as a “moment of real danger” due to falling license fee payments and the rise of competitors such as YouTube, TikTok and streaming companies. The number of people paying the BBC license fee fell faster than expected last year, with half a million households choosing not to pay.

To illustrate what we might be missing, towards the end of the advert, Ranganathan is wheeled backstage at Strictly Come Dancing to meet Louis Theroux, who says: “You know, none of this should exist,” as he places his hand on the lever of a giant BBC-branded on/off switch, “if we don’t want it to.”

The film is being shown for the first time on television during the World Cup final and was released on social media platforms on Sunday morning. It received some positive feedback from viewers, but the response was lukewarm in some quarters, with The Telegraph complaining that the selection of BBC shows presented was “remarkably mediocre” and The Times complaining that – as was “a great symbol of much television content these days on the BBC, but also elsewhere” – it was a rehash of an old idea.

There have been a number of BBC promotional films over the years aimed at packaging public service offerings in an informative, educational and entertaining way.

They include star-studded versions of the Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” and Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day.” But Cleese’s ad (which is itself based on Monty Python’s Life of Brian scene “What Have the Romans Done for Us?”) was recently highlighted by Chris Packham as “genius” as he promoted an open letter in defense of the company.

Ranganathan defended the rationale behind the remake, saying: “I’m a firm believer that the BBC should exist, and look, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it’s flawless.”

“There have definitely been times and issues where I wish I’d handled things differently — but I feel incredibly passionate about the fact that we should have it and that it adds so much to our lives. And I’m really proud of that.”

“I feel strongly that we should have a BBC and I believe there is nothing else that does what the BBC does.”

“I was very surprised that they chose me and very honored, but I thought it was really a no-brainer,” he said when asked to appear in the film’s lead.

Growing up, it was the BBC’s Goodness Gracious Me that made him believe he could have an acting career, as he said: “I didn’t think people who looked like me could do comedy. I used to do comedy when I was a little kid and then you see something like Goodness Gracious Me and you think, yeah, I can do that.”

The ad acknowledges that the BBC has done a lot for Ranganathan himself, with Merry noting that he fronts The Weakest Link, Sarah Cox reminding him that he hosts a show on Radio 2, and Chris McCausland highlighting his “hip-hop podcast on Sounds”.