Comedian John Cleese has been awarded �13,500 by a High Court judge against the London Evening Standard over a story about his move to the United States.

Cleese had demanded damages over what he described as a "vicious" attack on him in an article that appeared on 11 April last year.

The decision by Mr Justice Eady followed a recent hearing in London during which Cleese, 63, gave evidence via video link from his home in California.

Cleese starred in the enduringly popular Fawlty Towers

The article had discussed Cleese's emigration to the United States and his QC had told the court the "clear thrust of it was that he had become a humiliated failure".

The award is just �3,500 more than Cleese was originally offered by the paper in August last year.

The former Monty Python star rejected the offer of �10,000 because he felt the newspaper's published apology was insufficient.

Cleese argued it had not been put in a "sufficiently prominent" place in the newspaper.

Giving evidence last month, Cleese said he felt "humiliated and disorientated by the attack on him and to some extent scared".

He said what he wanted was not money but an adequate apology instead of one which he claimed had been hidden away.

Giving his ruling, the judge said that he had taken a number of matters into consideration and come to the conclusion that �13,500 was "the right figure".

Dropped

A sitcom starring Cleese was dropped from US television after just two episodes last year.

The ABC network made the decision because the show, Wednesday 9.30, failed to pull in high ratings.

But Cleese is going from strength to strength on the big screen.

He reprised his role of Sir Nicholas "Nearly Headless Nick" de Mimsy-Porpington in the Harry Potter sequel The Chamber of Secrets this year.

Cleese also appeared as Q in the latest James Bond film, Die Another Day.