Once, during a time of great tension in Tehran, I was filming outside the place where Friday prayers were being held. The subject of the sermon was the iniquity of the British towards Iran, stretching back over the decades. The worshippers came boiling out into the street, chanting "Marg bar Englistan!" "Marg bar Thatcher!": Death to England! Death to Thatcher! Well, one could see their point of course, but standing out in the street filming them with a big BBC sign on our camera we felt a little exposed. Or at least the cameraman did. I had seen this before, and was less worried.

"If you stand up on this wall you can get a shot of me walking through the crowd talking to them. Put a radio mike on me and you'll be able to hear what happens."

The cameraman was a gentle, rather paternal man not far short of retirement. "I really don't think you ought to do this, John."

The fact was, I had seen an American correspondent do precisely the same thing, and knew it worked. I insisted.

By now the crowd had stabilised, and had formed up in the road waving banners and beating their chests in time to their chanting. Even to someone who knew what was likely to happen, it was a little daunting. But as I walked among them, explaining that I was from Britain, they would shake my hand and tell me I was welcome in their country. In the centre of the crowd I spotted a large and rather excitable old man with a large sprouting beard and a turban. He was getting really worked up, beating his chest with both fists and booming out the responses:

"Marg bar Englistan! Marg bar Englistan!"

I could see the saliva whipping out around him, and his neighbours were moving away from him to give him more room. It seemed like the ultimate test of the theory. I edged up and stood in front of him.

"Good morning. I am from Englistan and I work for the BBC."

It was like the return of Empire. He bowed, took my hand and kissed it.

"You are very welcome in Iran, sir. I hope you like our country." I assured him that I did. And indeed it felt very good to be among Iranians again.

John Simpson writing in "Strange Places, Questionable People"