We have given a call for nationwide protests after Friday prayers to condemn the publication of the cartoons.

We'd actually met him once when he was at Cambridge. Then Terry Gilliam came along and started doing cartoons in the last series. We knew of John (Cleese) and Graham (Chapman) and what they were doing. They were doing a thing called 'The Last 1948 Show.' So it was really 'Don't Adjust Your Set' gets together with 'The Last 1948 Show'... John wanted to work with Mike Palin. At that time we decided not to do another series of 'Don't Adjust Your Set,' and we all came in the package: Mike and me and Eric and Terry Gilliam. We said, 'Let's all do it together.' We all liked what each other did.

He is like the sheep dog in the cartoons, ... Guarding the goats is his job and that is all he cares about. He doesn't want to lick you on the hand; he just wants to be left alone to do his job.

Suddenly, two bystanders stuck their heads inside the frame and ruined one of the funniest cartoons ever.

You're dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway.

I think by printing those cartoons we raise an issue. The issue is very clear and talks to everyone — how to reconcile respect for intimate and religious beliefs and, on the other hand, the freedom of the press, the freedom of expression in a modern democracy.