Rosanna Greenstreet speaks to the veteran actor at his home in Windlesham ahead of his directing debut at The Mill at Sonning
- When were you happiest?
A) I was happiest when I first went to the seaside. I am a working class boy and my father was a coal miner and, when I was six, I went to stay with my uncle George in Newbiggin-by-the-Sea. I was at my happiest running up and down the beach and swimming in the sea with my cousin Gary.
- What is your earliest memory?
A) Being born. I could feel myself encased in ice and I stretched my arms and I burst through and there was my mother’s face. I was born in Mexborough’s Montagu Hospital, South Yorkshire.
- What is your greatest fear?
A) I have no fear at all. Not even death – you can take death and kick him into the middle of next week!
- Which living person do you most admire and why?
A) The Dalai Lama for his love and compassion. I met him in 1990 at his house in Dharamsala and spent five days with him. He was considered the most unfortunate of the Dalai Lamas because he lost a kingdom, but he was given an opportunity to love his enemies – the Chinese.
He said to me, “Easy to love wife, dog and cat, love enemy acid test, Brian.” I replied, “You love the Chinese?” to which he said, “Yes, I feel sorry for them because Tibet is too high for them. They do not like living there.”
- What is the trait you most deplore in others?
A) Intolerance of other people’s beliefs.
- What was your most embarrassing moment?
A) In 1964, when I was Fancy Smith in Z Cars, I climbed Helios at BBC Television Centre in White City. Helios was known as golden bollocks and I blew up a French letter and put it on his penis. All the heads of television were down below and, as I was coming down, they switched on the fountain and bloody drenched me!
- Aside from a property, what’s the most expensive thing you’ve ever bought?
A) I spent £4,500 on a second hand Mercedes Benz, and I bought the latest garden mower for £600.
- What is your most treasured possession?
A) It’s a thangka from Tibet that the Dalai Lama gave me. He said, “This will give you long life.” It hangs on the wall.
- What is your screensaver?
A) It’s a photograph of the north face of Mount Everest. Three times I have been there, the last time I was only a few feet from the top, but I had to rescue a man who was dying. Saving him was more important than doing that last 200 yards to the summit.
- Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
A) Follow your dream and don’t let the bastards grind you down.
- What makes you unhappy?
A) Nothing.
- What would your super power be?
A) To heal all diseases.
- If you could bring something extinct back to life, what would you choose?
A) A brontosaurus. I love dinosaurs: it breaks my heart that they are not alive. I hope we find a planet with dinosaurs on it. I love all animals. I can’t bear that we kill things. I am trying to save the badger, we’ve got to find better ways of protecting ourselves from TB than killing badgers.
- Who would play you in the film of your life?
A) Orson Wells.
- What is your most unappealing habit?
A) Being a know-it-all.
- What is your favourite smell?
A) Night scented stock.
- What is your favourite word?
A) Love.
- What is the worst thing anyone’s ever said to you?
A) When I was in my early teens, a manager on a building site said. “You have no talent for acting, leave it alone and don’t get above your station.”
- What did you want to be when you were growing up?
A) An astronaut – I have completed cosmonaut training.
- Which book changed your life?
A) In Search of the Miraculous by P D Ouspensky, a great adventurer and philosopher. I read that book when I was 24 and it gave me a tremendous understanding of nature and life and people and religions.
- What is top of your bucket list?
A) I want to go into space.
- Is it better to give or to receive?
A) To give.
- What is your guiltiest pleasure?
A) Frightening bullies. I am a black belt judo, I was Yorkshire’s schoolboy boxing champion. I taught unarmed combat in the RAF when I did my national service. I am a very capable man and if I see bullying then I stop it straight away.
- What do you owe your parents?
A) I owe them for teaching me love and compassion.
- When did you last cry, and why?
A) I cried when Jeremy Brett died – I did the Three Musketeers with him on television.
Brian with the ladies of his life: daughter Rosalind and wife Hildegard Neil. Photo by Geraint Lewis
- What or who is the greatest love of your life?
A) Hildegard Neil. I got to know her 40 years ago when I was doing Boy Dominic for Yorkshire Television. She was in the same show and we fell in love.
- What does love feel like?
A) Absolutely exhilarating.
- What was the best kiss of your life?
A) Kissing Hildegarde Neil. It took greater courage to kiss her on the lips than it did to go up Everest!
- Have you ever said “I love you” without meaning it?
A) No.
- Which living person do you most despise and why?
A) Trump – he is trump, he is a fart.
- Who would you invite to your dream dinner party?
A) Jesus Christ, Ouspensky and the Dalai Lama.
- What do you most dislike about your appearance?
A) I love myself: I look like a cross between a yeti and King Kong.
- What is the worst job you’ve ever done?
A) Being an undertaker’s assistant when I was 15. My father had been injured in the coal mines and I had to leave school early to look after the family.
- Your biggest disappointment?
A) Nothing at all.
- If you could edit your past, what would you change?
A) Nothing.
- What keeps you awake at night?
A) I sleep like a stone.
- To whom would you most like to say sorry and why?
A) I don’t feel sorry for anything I’ve done.
- How do you relax?
A) I meditate with my seven dogs around me.
- How often do you have sex?
A) All I’ll say about sex is, I don’t need that bloody blue pill!
- What is the closest you’ve come to death?
A) High up on Everest in 1993 at 27,000 feet – avalanches were on my left and on my right and just missing me.
- What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
A) Good feet. I’ve got deformed feet. When I did national service in the RAF I did 76 parachute jumps. One day, we missed the field and hit concrete and I smashed my right foot to smithereens.
- If you could go back in time, where would you go?
A) I’d like to be by the side of Leonidas, the King of the Spartans who fought with three hundred men all those thousands and thousands of Persians and saved humanity and freedom.
- What song would you like played at your funeral?
A) I’m not going to die!
- What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
A) That the greatest danger in life is not taking the adventure.
- Where would you most like to be right now?
A) Exactly where I am, sitting in my little cabin in the garden with all my dogs around me.
Credit: BBC pictures
Brian Blessed directs his wife, Hildegard Neil and daughter, Rosalind Blessed, in Agatha Christie’s The Hollow, playing The Mill at Sonning July 8 – September 3. Book tickets by visiting millatsonning.com
This is a longer version of an article by Rosanna Greenstreet that first appeared in The Guardian
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