Actor Brian Blessed on his Hong Kong handover, sparring with the Dalai Lama, and his plans to climb Everest again at 81
The octogenarian actor known for his booming voice recalls the rain that washed away his master-of-ceremonies script for the handover, upstaging the emperor of Japan, and getting ‘rubbed up’ on set by Katharine Hepburn
I am resisting the temptation to write the bulk of this article in upper case, though even a blanket of capital letters would not do justice to Brian Blessed’s booming voice. In resting position, it is deep, sonorous and undulating (his favourite word). Then, at the most unexpected of moments, it explodes. And when it does ... I don’t think I have heard anything louder in my entire life. I worry about how my tape recorder is going to cope.
Blessed is taking a lunch break from rehearsals of a play he is directing in Berkshire, England, in a small theatre that happens to be right next to George Clooney’s 17th-century mansion. I am here to talk to him principally about Hong Kong – although that does not stop me from being treated to the full Blessed repertoire.
There are anecdotes involving everyone from Muhammad Ali to Queen Elizabeth. I am regaled with impressions of the former premier of China and the emperor of Japan. I am told how the Dalai Lama explained his ability to cope without sex. At one point, there is a spontaneous, eardrum-popping burst of Pavarotti. And finally I am sent on my way with a cheek-pulsating, beard-wobbling turn as his amphibious Star Wars character, Boss Nass.
And yet, all the while, Blessed insists, with the straightest of faces: “My biggest love in life is silence and stillness.”
The 80-year-old was in a rehearsal room, not unlike this one, in 1997, when he was asked to take on one of the biggest roles of his career. He was playing Squire Western in the BBC’s The History of Tom Jones when two men in dark suits turned up “looking very furtive, their expressions flatter than a kipper’s c**k”.
He had a mild panic attack, assuming his co-star Peter Capaldi (the current Doctor Who) had called in the lawyers after Blessed had hospitalised him when a fight scene went wrong a couple of weeks earlier. In fact, they were there on behalf of the British and Chinese governments to ask the actor to be the master of ceremonies at the handover of Hong Kong, 20 years ago this weekend.
