Blessed Hook-ed on panto (From Your Local Guardian)

Blessed Hook-ed on panto

8:00am Tuesday 16th September 2008 in Video news By Graham Moody

Ticket sales for this winter’s panto at Fairfield Halls are breaking records - and it’s all because of one big, hairy and very very loud man.

Voted the best Captain Hook of all time Brian Blessed is sure to steal the show with his booming voice, eccentric style and sheer enthusiasm for Peter Pan, a panto he has starred in countless times and really cannot get enough of.

“I think it’s theatre at its best,” he said.

“Pantomime is a joke and by that I mean I want people to enjoy themselves and laugh. I think it’s the hardest of all the mediums to do and I think many shows sell it short.

“I think that most of the acting in pantomimes is inaccurate and certainly when it comes to Peter Pan.

“Most of the Hooks I’ve watched I’m ashamed of. You can’t just walk on the stage and go ha ha ha he he he and come out of some soap.

Did you know? - Blessed is a fourth dan black belt in judo, having trained in Japan in the 1960s. - He has completed 200 hours of space training and looks set to go to the international space station, something he says “would be a dream come true.” - He is planning to go to Mariana’s trench, at 37,000 feet the deepest part of the world’s oceans, and complete the world’s most dangerous climb, a volcano in Ecuador that erupts every 14 minutes.

“Hook has to have massive energy, you can’t just stand on the stage with two flat feet.

“My Captain Hook is very fast and my humour relies on the fact that I’m taking the mickey out of myself and saying things like I am the greatest pirate of all time, oh yes I am.”

Ask anybody about Brian Blessed and the chances are they will shout back ‘Gordon’s Alive!’, his famous line from the cult 1980s film Flash Gordon, and true to form he says it within a minute of being introduced at the panto press call.

He played King Vultan, a character he adored as a child watching the black and white Saturday morning TV series, but unfortunately couldn’t keep the winged outfit.

“It is in a museum but I’ve got the bazooka,” he said.

“It’s very hard shooting those things because all the big things you fire in these films are made of cardboard and when I had to shoot my bazooka off I would go pow pow pow before being told the special effects were put in afterwards and I didn’t need to make any noise.

“But it’s very hard to fire and nothing to be there, you want to make the noises yourself.”

One thing you cannot imagine Blessed without is his trademark beard, so would he ever consider chopping it off?

“No I love it and everyone wants it.

“They want it blue they want it black they want it green, they want it all different colours and I’m making three films about Father Christmas and they will make it all white. They all want the beard.”

Watch Brian Blessed as Captain Hook