Now in its 23rd year, the Swindon Festival Of Literature has evolved into a reliably wide-ranging, inspiring, thought-provoking cultural gem of an event. With such a range of speakers and events, fans of the written-word worlds of contemporary fiction as well as that of the non-fiction worlds of politics, philosophy, economics, and autobiography are all well-catered for. Ultimately, though story-telling seems to be the heart and soul of this festival, and who better to represent this than the force of nature that is Brian Blessed.
In a rumbustious and wildly entertaining laugh-out-loud hour we heard how he’s climbed Everest, scared a Polar Bear, delivered a baby in Richmond Park, wandered naked around the streets of night-time Clifton with the young Peter O’Toole, appeared in many popular TV series and feature films, performed Shakespeare alongside many of the greats of British theatre, and discussed the F-word with The Queen. Oh, and he’s a trained Cosmanaut who plans to go into Space next year.
Speaking (and at times shouting, as he is wont to do) before a packed lunchtime audience at Swindon Arts Centre, the legendary actor ran wonderfully roughshod over the usual tried and tested format of these events, where an author speaks or is interviewed for the first half of a show often reading from their latest work, with questions from the audience in the second half. It quickly became clear, when Brian Blessed bound onto the stage exclaiming “Gordon’s Alive!” then immediately bound off it again into the auditorium booming Shakespearean monologue as he went, that this event would not necessarily follow the usual format.
Stomping the length of the main aisle and back again to the stage to be met by an understandably slightly flustered prospective interviewer, Blessed launched into an apparently random and yet weirdly seamless stream of anecdotes, memories and tales from his earliest days as a young actor in Yorkshire, to his time as a drama student at The Old Vic in Bristol, getting his first break in TV series Z Cars, playing in many of Shakespeare’s plays alongside the likes of Kenneth Branagh, alongside tales of exploring the Artic, to being involved in the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997.
Matt Holland, festival organiser and MC for the event, made a couple of valiant attempts to impose some kind of order on proceedings but wisely eventually chose to give the raconteur extraordinaire a free rein to recount some of his many incredible stories and adventures that covered a lifetime not just of acting in TV, film and theatre but also his passion for travel, adventure and exploration.
His latest book is essentially a series of such reminiscences, which we were told we should read whilst imagining the words being spoken in the voice of the man himself, to imagine ourselves sat opposite him, letting his stories unfold before us. For an hour those at this event went one better than imagining the voice of the author to hearing it up closer and personal in all it’s deep, entertaining, resonant power. Blessed’s optimism, love of life, theatre and adventure shone through this performance, the warm applause and appreciation of the audience, and queues for book signing afterwards a testament to his enduring popularity.
Guest Reviewer – Steve Cox, 2016.
