Michael Palin and his crew were held at gunpoint while filming his new travel series in Venezuela. The Monty Python star has revealed that he and his TV crew were detained by armed guards from the country's intelligence agency, SEBIN, for hours while making his new three-part series, Michael Palin in Venezuela. "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," Palin recalled, reports the Mirror. "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." The 82-year-old and his filmmaking team were held for several hours while the authorities searched their bags, took photos of all of their belongings and confiscated their passports. Thankfully for Palin, while they were "waiting to hear our fate from the headquarters in Caracas", the guards searched his name on Google and came across a clip of The Fish Slapping Dance sketch from Monty Python. The mood in the room shifted, and the armed guards eventually let them go. "Nearly everyone in the world, from North Korea to Venezuela, cracks up when they see that. 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," he shared. "But I did feel we could well be watched from thereon in, given the detention we endured at gunpoint." Michael Palin in Venezuela will premiere on Channel 5 on Tuesday 16 September.