Sir Michael Palin accidentally set fire to house

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Sir Michael Palin accidentally set fire to his house.

The 76-year-old 'Monty Python' star was recovering at home after heart surgery in September but his kitchen went up in flames after a piece of kitchen paper caught fire on the gas and Michael had to be rescued by his 86-year-old neighbour.

Writing in Idler magazine, Michael - who had open-heart surgery to repair two valves - explained: "As flames licked up towards the ceiling, I dialed the emergency services - but the moment we connected, the smoke alarm went off and I couldn't hear a word they were saying.

"Just caught something about washing my hands which made me realize that, without my glasses on, I'd rung 111 instead of 999.

"But I washed my hands anyway, and by a fantastic stroke of luck, the loose tap that we never had fixed finally came apart, dousing the ceiling and partially extinguishing the fire.

"At this point my neighbor, who's 86 and had a sextuple by-pass, wrenched up the window and pulled me to safety.

"Thank God he'd been told to take it easy, otherwise he'd have been out playing golf and my house would have been a write-off."

Meanwhile, earlier this year, Michael revealed the death of Terry Jones was like "losing a limb".

The star passed away at the age of 77 in January after a long battle with dementia, and his co-star and friend Michael said he will "miss" his "wonderful companion".

In an emotional BBC interview , Michael was seen battling tears as he said: "I shall miss the sociable Terry - sorry - I just miss putting my arm around him and having a drink. He was just a wonderful companion, a terrific man and I shall miss our trips to the bar, I'll miss our pints and I shall miss our sessions putting the world to rights."

Michael met Terry at Oxford University in 1962 before they performed together for the first time at Edinburgh Festival two years later, and explained the pair were "inseparable".

He added: "It's sort of like losing a limb, you know, I've known Terry since I met him at university in 1962 ... and we were inseparable for many many years after that, and through the Python times.

"And even in the last few years when Terry was doing his thing I was doing my thing, we would still meet up. We were very close friends and I valued Terry's opinion probably more than any other; he was very, very astute."