Congregants of All Saints Church in Whetstone would probably not have been surprised to see their Anglican vicar, Adrian Benjamin, running around the streets of Florence on a Channel 4 TV programme on Sunday night.

Reverend Benjamin is no stranger to the limelight, staging his own plays and theatrical performances at his church's arts centre and on the streets of the borough. Once he even starred in a Hollywood movie alongside Richard Burton and Liz Taylor, playing the Pope, of all people.

His appearance on The Search, a seven-part global treasure hunt presented by Jamie Theakston, is even more exciting. He and nine fellow contestants travel the world battling each other to crack fiendish codes and unravel ancient mysteries, at stunning locations including the Taj Mahal, ancient Egyptian tombs and lost Inca villages in Peru.

Contestants include experts in the fields of art, history, science and architecture. Although the 64-year-old is the oldest contestant in The Search, he is an early favourite to pick up the £50,000 buried treasure prize, having already beaten 80,000 applicants to become one of the finalists.

He told us: "The show is jolly good fun. I was pleasantly surprised to be invited along, and the bishop was very nice and said I could go. People have been ringing to say how much they enjoyed it on Sunday. I do misbehave and there was a lot of swearing. At one point I called the gondolier a cretin'. I apologised to him, but they did not show that bit.

Mr Benjamin had visited Florence as a child with his family, so filming brought back many happy memories. But it was a modern pursuit which attracted his attention.

"The disco was right next door so I cleared off from the hotel and went over. The bouncers got me in and there was a group from the West Indies playing. The manager showed me backstage, the lights and smoke machines. There were girls dancing on podiums and so on. This was purely for my research because I run discos at the church."

Mr Benjamin will be in France for this Sunday's episode, which starts at 9pm.