Comedy icon Sir Michael Palin has revealed he was held at gunpoint while filming a new Channel 5 travelogue in Venezuela.
The 82-year-old and his crew were detained by armed guards from the country’s intelligence service, SEBIN, while filming the three-part series Michael Palin in Venezuela.
However, the mood lightened after the gun-toting men viewed a classic Monty Python sketch, he said.
“Things got quite heavy. It wasn’t just the fact that they stopped us from filming, it was the force with which we were stopped,” Sir Michael recalled.
“It started with a couple of policemen, then a couple of the National Guard, and then along came men with rifles, bulletproof vests and helmets. It was the kind of thing you’d expect to encounter if an embassy was being bombed; it was quite alarming.”
After being stopped by the gun-toting officers, Sir Michael said he and his team were held for several hours. Their bags were searched, their belongings photographed, and their passports confiscated.
In a “bizarre” turn of events, Sir Michael said the guards eventually found his name online through a Google search while the crew was “waiting to hear our fate” from SEBIN’s headquarters in Caracas.
First, they discovered an interview of Sir Michael and John Cleese in which they talked about their film The Life of Brian.
“They watched it and decided I wasn’t very funny,” Sir Michael said.
“Eventually they got on to Monty Python clips and they watched the fish-slapping dance, which is always a good thing to show people. Nearly everyone in the world, from North Korea to Venezuela, cracks up when they see that.”
Once the famous sketch had been viewed, the atmosphere shifted, Sir Michael said.
“Once we’d shown them the fish-slapping dance, I felt we were OK, and by the end of the day they finally released us.”
However, he added, “I did feel we could well be watched from thereon in, given the detention we endured at gunpoint.”
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