Michael Palin had to reshoot scenes for his North Korea documentary because he had his hands in his pockets, which was seen as “disrespectful”.
M ichael Palin had to reshoot scenes for his North Korea documentary because he had his hands in his pockets, which was seen as “disrespectful”.
The Monty Python star irked officials during the first day of filming Michael Palin in North Korea when his hands became obscured as he spoke to camera in front of two statues of the country’s former leaders.
Palin said the production crew was ordered by guides to do a retake of the scene because the act is considered «disrespectful» by North Koreans in the presence of monuments.
The 75-year-old was granted unprecedented access to explore the secretive nation, which is long known for its mistrust of the west, for the Channel 5 documentary.
In an interview with the Radio Times, Palin said: «Because we were in front of the monuments of the two great leaders and there are various rules there and the leaders have to be filmed in their entirety, and so you have to stand a long way back so you can film the full length of them.
“And in the end they said no, no, no, You have got to do it again because you had your hand in your pocket and that is disrespectful, so that was interesting.”
P alin also said minders had specified that any signs of litter and people in vest tops were to banned from the final cut.
D espite the fact that the veteran traveller has roamed the world for more than 30 years, Palin admitted that he was still “very,very cautious” about visiting North Korea amid fears over its highly criticised nuclear weapons programme .
