Clueless Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev and aspiring rapper Ali G are dead. Sacha Baron Cohen, the British comedian who created and played the unforgettable characters, tells The Telegraph that he's retiring both of them.

"When I was being Ali G and Borat I was in character sometimes 14 hours a day and I came to love them, so admitting I am never going to play them again is quite a sad thing. It is like saying goodbye to a loved one. It is hard, and the problem with success, although it's fantastic, is that every new person who sees the Borat movie is one less person I `get' with Borat again, so it's a kind of self-defeating form, really" says the 36-year-old actor-comedian.

Baron Cohen can be seen in cinemas this weekend as a singing barber in Tim Burton's "Sweeney Todd."