Call 999! It's a holy hand grenade
Python farce on London street
The bomb squad evacuated buildings after being called out to defuse… Monty Python’s Holy Hand Grenade Of Antioch.Police and firefighters also sped to the scene after water company workers found a ‘suspicious object’ under a fire hydrant cover.
But about an hour later, the bomb squad declared all was safe – after discovering the ‘device’ was a copy of the prop from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. In the 1975 film, the grenade was used to destroy a killer rabbit with big pointy teeth.
Publican Alberto Romanelli said last Thursday's scare in the City of London was ‘one of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen… I lost a good hour's worth of business.’
Toy Holy Hand Grenades are widely available on the internet, either as collector’s toys or as ‘danglers’ to hang over a car’s rear-view mirror, like furry dice.
Michael Palin told the Islington Gazette: ‘Our Holy Hand Grenade was fictional... We don't want to add to the armaments of the world.’
Published: 19 Mar 2009
