I’ve just returned home from a genuinely remarkable evening out. “An Evening with Brian Blessed” actually at G-Live in Guildford. You’ll probably know him as the larger than life character from stage and screen. An avuncular figure with a habit of bellowing unexpectedly, cussing loudly and startling all in his path.
He’s all of those things and much, much more. You probably didn’t know that alongside his acting career in the 60’s and 70’s he used to look after quarantined wild animals in his garden for the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. Or that he’s devoted countless hours to fundraising and the support of animal conservation, has several dogs, hand-raised a baby orang utan for Chessington Zoo and is patron of Hopefield Animal Sanctuary.
It’s not widely known that he’s the oldest man to have walked to the magnetic North Pole and to have ascended to above 28,000 feet on the North Face of Mount Everest without relying on additional oxygen. His lungs have nearly twice the capacity of a normal man. He counts more explorers and conservationists as friends than actors and held the hand of the great Sir Patrick Moore, reciting poetry to him on his death-bed.
At the age of 81 he has just returned from Moscow where he’s completed 800 hours of cosmonaut training with NASA at Star City. He intends to be the oldest man in space and I absolutely believe he will be. He’s a remarkable man.
To have spent a couple of hours in his company was to experience being in the presence of greatness. Not just in terms of his physique or the power of his voice. More the content of what he said, his love of life, absolute belief in mankind’s ability to save the planet and discover new ones and the purity of his soul.
[Photo credit to my son, Matt!]
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