...but comic said he couldn't report it for fear of reprisals

Omid Djalili has revealed he was shot at in his student days, in what he suggested was a racist attack.

But he was told not to report the attack in case the gunmen returned to kill him.

The comic, now 57, was on an English and theatre studies course at Ulster University in the 1980s, during the Troubles .

'I was one of three ethnic minorities at university,’ he told Kate Garraway on her  ITV talk show Life Stories. ‘Once I was throwing stones on Portstewart Beach.  These guys come over to me and they said "Do you want your kneecaps blown off?" 

'I got shot at with a rifle and I ran away, they came chasing after me, I hid behind a bin.'

‘And then on the Monday morning I told my professor and he said, "Don't report it. If we report it, they'll say who it is and then they'll come and kill you".’

Djalili also recalled how he got into comedy after being rejected from a Cardiff drama school with a letter which said: ‘We felt with you there was nothing we could do with you. You look different, you sound different, we couldn't place you in our programme but we think you are already the finished article, go out there and try and get work by yourself.’

The British-Iranian star also told Garraway about meeting the Queen on one occasion, saying: ‘I remember meeting the Queen once and I didn't have a tie and I left my collar open. The Queen had already had a bit of a drink and she was a little bit tipsy and happy and making her way down saying hello to people.

'She got to me and she looked down at my collar and kind of did this sound that said "you dared to do it and you got away with it, I like it"'. 

In a separate interview with Metro today, Djalili also waded into the debate about comedians being cancelled, saying: ‘We all need safe spaces but… a lot of people who come to be offended.

‘They all want to go viral, they know there are cameras. In the live arena. We have to be a little bit careful what we say so we don’t attract nutbags.

‘But also, in the live arena, anything can happen. Lots of stuff has happened in my career and you have to sort of roll with it. It teaches you to live in the moment, but if comedians are feeling unsafe, that’s something that should be addressed.’

Published: 17 Aug 2023