BLESSED BRIAN

Bernard Bale meets the actor, raconteur, mountaineer and very happy resident of Surrey as he celebrates the golden anniversary of his career

It was 60 years ago that a young Brian Blessed made his TV debut in a Saturday Playhouse TV production titled Last Day In Dreamland. How wrong could a title be? For Brian it was not the last day in dreamland but the first and he has been having an amazing time on Film, TV and stage ever since.

“I don’t mind speaking about the past just so long as people do not assume it to be me talking up my own obituary,” he says. “I don’t like pigeon-holing and the years on your birth certificate are not some kind of rule which says you must do this at that age or feel that way when you are of another age. It just tells you that you have gone from being a young fool to being a middleaged fool to being an older fool, that’s it. I feel not much different than I did when I was 20. I do two hours of weights and cycling each day. I train, not because of vanity, but because of the expeditions I still want to do, such as climbing the five great mountains of northern Russia.”

On screen, Brian has starred in everything from 115 episodes as PC “Fancy” Smith in Z-Cars, Doctor Who and Flash Gordon to Kenneth Branagh’s Shakespeare films, Black Adder and so many more roles than we can’t even begin to mention here.