A stained glass window for St Tony Blair? Do come in ...
A COMEDIAN managed to walk past armed police and film inside Tony Blair’s home as part of a new satirical BBC series.
Heydon Prowse posed as a decorator to gain entry to the former Prime Minister’s £4 million home in Central London.
Clutching a stained glass window portraying Mr Blair as an angel – part of a spoof item in which Prowse asks people whether the ex-Labour leader should be granted sainthood for ‘bringing democracy to Iraq’ – the comedian tells a member of Mr Blair’s staff he ‘has come to deliver the stained glass window for Tony’.
After explaining he needs a ladder to fit the window over Mr Blair’s front door, the maid invites him in while she looks for the equipment. It is during this period that Prowse secretly films inside the Georgian townhouse.
Later, with armed police looking on, Prowse takes the ladder outside and pretends to fit the glass over the door. At one point, Mr Blair’s maid comes out and says: ‘It’s a bit small isn’t it?’
The footage will be shown on Wednesday evening in BBC3’s The Revolution Will Be Televised.
Last night a spokeswoman for programme makers, Hat Trick Productions, said Mr Blair had not complained because he had not been aware it had taken place.
She said that police had subsequently asked Prowse to identify himself and producers were called to confirm he had been ‘on BBC business’. She added no laws had been broken because ‘he knocked on the door and the maid opened it and invited him in’.
But the prank will raise fears about the ease in which a terrorist could use a similar ruse. More than 20 officers are assigned to protect Mr Blair, at a cost of £115,000 a week, with four armed police officers stationed outside the house round-the-clock.
A spokesman for Mr Blair did not return calls.