Python skit won over guards in Venezuela

COMEDY great Michael Palin managed to wriggle out of a fishy situation thanks to a classic Monty Python sketch.

- BY JEN PHARO

The 82-year-old was held at gunpoint by the Venezuelan intelligence service while filming a travel show for Channel 5.

But the guards let him go when they watched a video of the comedy troupe's Fish Slapping Dance sketch from 1971.

And the sight of John Cleese and Michael whacking each other with pilchards and trout secured the crew's freedom.

Michael said: “It wasn't just the fact that they stopped us from filming, it was the force with which we were stopped.