In 1980, as part of Cramer's BBC work, he went to the Iranian embassy in London to obtain a travel visa. He was trapped, along with 25 other hostages, when Iranian Arabs, campaigning for sovereignty of Khuzestan Province, seized control of the building. He told his captors that he felt extremely unwell, and, according to Cramer, "they were convinced that I was having a heart attack or something worse than that". He was released and gave information on the situation to the Special Air Service team preparing to storm the embassy. Five terrorists and two hostages were killed over the six-day event; Cramer was released on the second day. He declined psychiatric counselling, but later believed he had suffered post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and called it "the single most terrifying thing of [his] entire life".