“I love the fact that I look like a yeti and female gorillas seem to love me”: Life according to… Brian Blessed

Screen and stage legend Brian Blessed is at the Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, on Saturday for his An Evening With show.

Here, he answers our questions…

What can the audience expect from your show, An Evening With Brian Blessed ?

I’m 50% actor, 50% explorer and I’ll be talking about both.

I’ll chat about my adventures all over the world – Everest, South America, the North Pole, the lost world of Venezuela – mixed with theatrical and film stories.

I also want to tell people to fulfil their dreams and not make a pact with old age. I’m sick to death of talk about age.

I’m 82 but I bench press 300lbs and walk five miles a day. I have the energy of ten men.

Nature doesn’t cheat, there is no one like you, fulfil your dreams and don’t let them grind you down.

Have you climbed many of Scotland’s mountains?

Many times. I wish people would take Ben Nevis seriously, because you need to know what you’re doing. The climbs are some of the hardest in the world.

But my favourite is Ben Macdui. And of course you have to be aware of the big grey monster of Ben Macdui.

I’ve heard him in the mist, breathing. I tell people I’m with that he’s 12ft tall and I can sense his red eyes, just to scare them.

You’re booming voice is your trademark. Did you have to work on developing it?

I’ve always had it – since I was a child.

People always said: “What a huge voice, but we can’t understand a word he says, Mrs Blessed”. I had a very strong Yorkshire accent as a child.

Flash Gordon is your most famous film. What makes it so special?

People say it’s camp, but it’s not – it’s a great film with fantastic music.

Everywhere I go – deserts, jungles – people ask me to say: “Gordon’s Alive!”

I was at the Magnetic North Pole when a Russian sub broke through the ice and the captain popped up and asked me to say it.

“Gordon’s Alive!” captured the public’s imagination. I say it and people cheer. It’s a cry for freedom.

How do you spend your free time?

I can’t wait to get up every morning.

I love the fact that I look like a yeti and that female gorillas seem to love me.

I live on four acres and have thousands of animals. I love walking my dogs and gardening.

My Shetland pony came into the kitchen last week, ate all the dog food, and then pooed on the floor.

I almost missed a show trying to get him out of the house.

Any unfulfilled ambitions?

I want to go into space. I’ve completed all of my space training and I’m very involved in the space programme.

Space is my big love. I remember how I felt when I discovered as a child that there were other planets.

What would surprise us about you?

I love silence.

Kenneth Branagh told the press I’m the quietest man he knows. I’m sitting in my hut right now, and Ken will come round and sit here with me.

He talks, I listen, and then we meditate together. We have a father and son relationship – I’m the son, he is the father, as he acts so old compared to me.