{"id":410271,"date":"2025-09-09T11:13:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T11:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/410271\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T11:13:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T11:13:16","slug":"michael-palin-held-at-gunpoint-while-making-new-documentary-in-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/410271\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Palin held at gunpoint while making new documentary in Venezuela"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Comedy icon Sir Michael Palin<\/a> has revealed he was held at gunpoint while filming a new Channel 5<\/a> travelogue in Venezuela<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 82-year-old and his crew were detained by armed guards from the country\u2019s intelligence service, SEBIN, while filming the three-part series Michael Palin in Venezuela<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, the mood lightened after the gun-toting men viewed a classic Monty Python<\/a> sketch, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings got quite heavy. It wasn\u2019t just the fact that they stopped us from filming, it was the force with which we were stopped,\u201d Sir Michael recalled. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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\u2019d expect to encounter if an embassy was being bombed; it was quite alarming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Michael Palin and his team were stopped by police while filming in Venezuela (ITN Productions)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

In a \u201cbizarre\u201d turn of events, Sir Michael said the guards eventually found his name online through a Google search while the crew was \u201cwaiting to hear our fate\u201d from SEBIN\u2019s headquarters in Caracas.<\/p>\n

First, they discovered an interview of Sir Michael and John Cleese in which they talked about their film The Life of Brian.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey watched it and decided I wasn\u2019t very funny,\u201d Sir Michael said.<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Michael Palin with his Monty Python co-stars (Getty)<\/p>\n

\u201cEventually 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once the famous sketch had been viewed, the atmosphere shifted, Sir Michael said. <\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we\u2019d shown them the fish-slapping dance, I felt we were OK, and by the end of the day they finally released us.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he added, \u201cI did feel we could well be watched from thereon in, given the detention we endured at gunpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Michael Palin in Venezuela\u2019 comes to Channel 5 on 16 September<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[77,3943,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-410271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115174048330957411","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}