Chris Tarrant reveals he was thrown into prison cell in Kenya

Chris Tarrant has revealed his ‘terrifying’ ordeal when he was thrown into a jail cell during the last day of his Tarrant On The African Express series.

Speaking candidly about the incident with The Mirror on Tuesday, the former Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? host, 74, detailed how inmates referred to him as ‘sweet cheeks’ while he and his crew were locked up in a local police station.

Of the incident, he explained: ‘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 b****y 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 unexpectedly taken to prison at the end of his journey on the Lunatic Line in the country, which was built across the country to Lake Victoria by the British.

It is renowned as one of the most dangerous routes in the world, and one stop on Chris’ journey is the site where 140 workers were eaten by lions in 1898.

It was on the final day that he was accosted by police, who he said claimed he didn’t have permission to film at the site despite having the papers to prove they were, in fact, allowed to do so.

Saying how he believed the police in camouflage jackets thought they were spies, he added that they were asked to go to the station to sign a paper explaining the understanding, only to trick them into going into a cell by showing them around.

Chris said the police took his and his crew’s passports and phones during the time, but later returned them after realising the mistake and letting them go.

He explained that after their frightening stint in prison the team headed straight to the airport and returned home.

While Chris said he thought Kenya was a ‘lovely’ place despite the incident, he did admit he wasn’t keen to return. 

Tarrant on the African Express is set to air on Wednesday at 8pm on Channel 5.