Chris Tarrant was "terrified" when he was arrested and locked in a Kenyan jail cell - and branded "sweet cheeks" by convicts.
Chris Tarrant
The 74-year-old star was in the African country on his last day of filming Channel 5 show 'Extreme Railways' when armed officers marched him and his crew to the local station, and the TV presenter was left petrified when he was branded "sweet cheeks" by large guys in neighbouring cells.
He told the Daily Mirror newspaper: "There were these very large Kenyan men in the other cell leering at us and telling us the things they were going to do to us when we shared their cell that night.
"They kept calling me ‘sweet cheeks’, which I didn’t like. It was bloody scary. One of the crew said to me, ‘Do you want to phone a friend?’
"I said, ‘f*** off! Not now’. We were genuinely frightened, they were big blokes and you hear of people just disappearing.”
Chris was nearing the end of his 766-mile journey on the so-called Lunatic Line - given the name because of its cost - for Channel 5 when police with "big guns" told the team they "didn't have permission" to be filming.
He added: "We had all the documents showing we had been granted permission ... they asked us to go back to the police station just to sign a piece of paper, saying it was all a misunderstanding.
"But when we got there they showed us to this bit round the back and then these bars came down. They took our passports and our phones. Then, at 4pm, a policeman came and started handing back our passports, saying he was sorry about the misunderstanding."
The former 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?' host admitted he loved Kenya, but isn't convinced about making a return trip.
He said: "We ran out of the police station, and raced to the airport to catch our flights.
"It was terrifying. It’s a lovely country but, I am not sure I’ll ever go back.”
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