Arsenal legend Emmanuel Petit has recalled a tense moment during his appearance on ITV’s The Bill in the run up to France’s World Cup and European Championship triumphs.
For Emmanuel Petit, playing in a World Cup or European Championship final was a cakewalk compared with a cameo appearance on a British TV drama.
Just months after leading France to victory in the 1998 World Cup, the Arsenal legend was at the height of his fame and form when he was suddenly asked to appear as himself on The Bill, a show that ran from 1984 to 2010.
Petit was understandably baffled by the request, having barely known anything about the famous police drama, but he gladly accepted, appearing on a celebratory edition of the ITV show and turning up at the hospital with flowers and signed Arsenal balls for patients.
“To be honest, I didn’t know about the bill,” he said. mirror. “When I was asked, I was a bit taken aback because I’m not an actor and I can’t act. I was born to be a footballer, not an actor.”
“I remember going to the hospital and giving roses to someone who was sick, and meeting her parents outside her room and being like, ‘It was so important that I was here,’ and it was such a short time.”
It was a short but tense appearance for Petit, who is far more comfortable at Highbury or the Stade de France, and he recalled: “Someone said I looked less nervous on the pitch when I was playing in a World Cup or European competition than when I was doing a few minutes in The Building!”
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“I said, ‘Yes, because I was uncomfortable.’ I couldn’t control my emotions. I’m not an actor and people were watching. But it was a very short scene, so it was fine for me.”
But it was an episode he remembers fondly, as he added: “After I did it, my teammates, especially the English lads, came up to me and said, ‘Oh you did this with Bill. That’s amazing. You’re really popular in England.'”
“I was like, ‘I don’t know, is it?’ I didn’t realise it was such a big thing because I thought it would be on TV at Christmas time. Apparently it’s not on TV anymore. But the people in it were so nice and I was so happy to be in it.”
Emmanuel Petit spoke on behalf of BetMGM: Predict the Euro 2024 scores and play our new £2 million Golden Goal Game. England . 18 years of age or older