Brian Blessed

Brian Blessed0:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

Brian Blessed0:08

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen ninety five, and the presenter was Sue Lawley.

Presenter0:29

My castaway this week is an actor. He made his name in the sixties as P C Fancy Smith in BBC Television Zed Cars. Since then he's appeared in dozens of roles, from old Deuteronomy in the musical Cats to Augustus Caesar in I Claudius. When he's not acting, he climbs mountains, real ones, like Mount Everest. Six years ago he made a film recreating the journey made by his hero George Mallory, who lost his life on its slopes. He's been back again since, and he plans another ascent later this year. Once you stop taking risks, he says, you start to lose. He is Brian Blessed. Is there any kind of link, Brian, between those two parallel activities of yours, acting and and climbing? I mean, do you experience the same kind of fear on the stage on a first night as you might feel fear on a mountain? Well yes, yes, I do. I feel very vulnerable about both. But I always feel that acting is holding up the mirror up to life, whereas climbing Everest or any of the great mountains going on expeditions, that is life. And I find there's a very big difference between the sweat and fear of a first night at Stratford on Avon and being on the loatsey face close by Everest. But the panic is the same, presumably.

Brian Blessed1:40

But the path

Presenter1:42

It is, but you're not going to lose your life at Stratford. So, how close have you come to losing your life at Stratford? Oh, well, I've got exceedingly frightened. Last time I was rather shocked at a certain kind of vanity. I thought the mountain loved me. I thought I was a servant to what I was doing. And it was the worst monsoon conditions in 70 years in 1993 in the autumn. You can imagine what it was like on Everest. And I descended the Lhotse face very quickly one evening, and the following day the whole face avalanched, the worst ever, biggest recorded avalanche in Himalayan history. Then it started to have other avalanches down the west ridge and off there. And one came at me at 200 miles an hour, so I see it now 50 feet, 100, no, 200 feet high, coming straight at me.

Brian Blessed1:47

Oh well

Presenter2:31

And the leader and I just dived into a kind of small valley. We rolled and rolled and rolled and rolled and rolled. Dive, dive, dive, dive, dive. And the avalanche missed me by inches. It caught my heels. And I got up and I was so shocked, I raged at the mountain. I've only come here to do this and do that. What are you doing this to me for? But is that part of the reason you do it? And I said that you said that if you stop taking risks, you begin to lose. It's the risk of the danger. Well, yes, I think it was Maury who said the greatest danger in life. They said isn't Everest dangerous. I said, yes, but the greatest danger in life is not taking the adventure. And an adventure can't be adventure unless it is tinged or manifest with danger. Right. More of that in a minute. But tell me first about your first record.

Brian Blessed2:48

Yeah.

Brian Blessed2:55

Yeah

Presenter3:15

Well, yes, I've I've chosen the Von Williams Sinfona Antarctica. The Antarctic is so wonderfully wild, and it has a kind of astonishing magic and power and purity and loneliness which I embrace. And it it brings back great memories of being very close to God.

Presenter4:13

Part of Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 7, Sinfonia Antarctica, with Heather Harper and the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andre Previn. I can imagine if you played that to yourself halfway up a mountain, you'd be terrified. Yes, it did. It does. It does bring my conjure up all kinds of memories. Extraordinary. Let's talk about acting. For years, it was a case of mention the name Brian Blessed and everybody said, Ah, yes, Zed Carrs, P C Fancy Smith. It was the making of you, really, wasn't it? Well, it did it was. I mean, I was interviewed for and read for The Norwegian Gunner in episode five, and I got Fancy Smith. I'm quite sure had I read for Fancy Smith, I'd have got The Norwegian Gunner.

Brian Blessed4:40

What?

Presenter4:52

No one ever knew why they called him Fancy Smith. But also, you know, people say, Oh, we mustn't mention their cars and I I thought it was such a great series. I've seen about fourteen of them recently and I don't think television has been better. The close-ups, the reality, the the nakedness So you're in no way ashamed of your acting origins. No, sir, and I loathe actors who knock what's done them good.

Brian Blessed5:03

Closer.

Brian Blessed5:06

So you're

Brian Blessed5:08

Well no.

Presenter5:14

Everybody remembers you for that, as I say. I mean, your your voice, of course, and and also, if if I may say, your your bulk. I mean, these have not been very bulky, yes.

Brian Blessed5:20

I mean that's big chapter.

Brian Blessed5:21

Yeah.

Presenter5:22

Do you feel, therefore, that you've you've never you've always been cast in the kind of villainous roles? You're the sort of big baddie, ru rather than than the hero or the leading man. Well, it's funny to you because you played, say, about four or five baddies, and there seem to kind of stick. I should say that th three quarters of my roles have been rather goodies, really, or

Presenter5:41

Bad hero. You've been Long John Silver, I suppose. Yes, well, I've always yes, th th I th I thought Long John Silver was one of one of the loveliest things I've ever been. And a musketeer, of course, was always a little bit of a sound. And Portosh, yes. Have you ever been out of work?

Brian Blessed5:43

I'll tell you.

Brian Blessed5:48

Panama

Brian Blessed5:49

And Portos, yes.

Presenter5:52

I'm very lucky. I know, so I don't know. It seems that there's not many kind of loud voiced men or bulky big men who can play pirates and kings and dukes and things. You were a leading man to Catherine Hepburn once, weren't you? Yes. What was that experience? Well, it was marvellous because it was for a film called Trojan Women that was made in 1970. Michael Kakianis, who directed Zorb of the Greek. And he got Hepburn was Hecuburr, Vanessa Redgrave was Andromache. Genevieve Bourgeon was Cassandra, and Irene Pappas was Helen of Troy. And I was the leading man.

Brian Blessed6:02

Stop.

Brian Blessed6:06

When it was

Brian Blessed6:27

And you rather fell for Catherine.

Presenter6:29

Well, I did. I was told by Kakianis to be very honest. He rehearsed me for five months before the film. And he said you must be honest with all these actresses. I was petrified. It was my first big film lead. And eventually I met her and we did the first scene together and I thought it was dreadful. And by that time I was kind of full of honesty and not diplomacy that Kakianis had filmed me with. And she said, Well, wa it was was that lousy? I said yes. Was I lousy? I said, Yes, I thought you were lousy.

Presenter6:54

Really? Why do you think I was lousy? Well, I'd explain why this for all the reasons I thought she was being lousy in the scene. She was no longer a queen. I didn't have to give her this information. And the only reason I could give her this information is viewpester me.

Presenter7:07

And we did it again, and she did pester me, and she was brilliant, of course, and acted me off the screen, left, right, and centre, and was wonderful. And from that day on we were kind of two honest people together. She'd tell me if I was being bad, and I'd tell her she was being bad. But you've said since um I considered spending the rest of my life with her. I did.

Presenter7:24

I did. I lost her friendship. I I

Presenter7:27

When she g she we went cl uh collecting fossils together all over Spain where we filmed Trojan women. Went for the long walks and this then and

Presenter7:36

And then I came back to London and she appeared in London. And my my private life was difficult because everyone wanted to kind of really creep around Hepana. She came to London. Everyone wanted to kind of do all that. And I couldn't face that. And I kept her away from it. And she kept phoning out, Can I come over and see you? And I answer, I'm afraid I'm going off. I'm afraid I'm going off. And then she stopped phoning. And now when I send her messages, she doesn't reply.

Presenter8:02

But d I mean, may I ask, did did you actually have an affair? No, no, no, no, no, we didn't we just we just he was platonic, but we held hands. I was very, very close, arms round her waist, and long, long walks, but I very much uh sympathico, very, very, very, very close. I found her amazingly sexy. I think that had had Tracy been alive, I'd have broken all his fingers to get to her.

Brian Blessed8:06

Oh no.

Presenter8:26

Tell me about record number two.

Presenter8:28

When I lived in South Yorkshire as a child, on the right was the North Eastern Railway, and on the left was the Disuse Railway, and I used to see trains like the Mallard and The Flying Scotsman. And of course this was kind of really augmented by the fact that Paul Temple and Dick Barton, all these wonderful BBC series, were on the radio. And the title music to Paul Temple's series was Coronation Scott, which we all adore.

Presenter9:45

Coronation Scott, the signature tune from Paul Temple. So, Brian Blessed, you're the son of a Yorkshire coal miner, born a few years before the outbreak of war. Was it then that the the classic childhood of its kind, you know, clogs and tin baths in the middle of the house? No, my mother was well, no, we didn't have the tin baths, none of that, no. Our bath didn't have any enamel on it. I remember my father used to bathe in it, there was very little white enamel on it, but my mother was adamant that I never wore clogs. So my father used to repair my boots. He was very good at that, so there's a kind of pride in the house that I never wore clogs. I don't know why.

Brian Blessed9:58

No my mom

Presenter10:17

And were there the fears that, you know, your father was dead falls at the pit and rushing? Oh, they were they were amazing to I think they must I my father was a great hero to me, still alive, he's eighty eight, nearly eighty nine. Uh he was a coal hero, did the hardest work in the coal mines. And there were no pit baths, so he'd come through the fog, there was lots of smog and fog and pollution then, and the the wonderful lights. I'd wait for him and I could hear the sun and see the spark on his boots coming through the fog and the gas lights, and he'd have his lamp on his head, and his face was black, the no baths, and to see him coming down, he just looked like a Greek god, and to pick me up. Now then I'd what you been doing? What you been doing? And he'd pick me up, but he was so powerful. And I'd talk about the dandy and the beano and about this and that and that Treasure Island was on curtain up on television. And I'd help him to kind of get his dinner ready and then he'd fall asleep and then I'd bathe his back. And his back was like a mountain landscape. It was all purple from all the roof falls all the time. Small roof falls because he worked naked,'cause he was so, you know, so hot.

Brian Blessed10:17

And were there

Brian Blessed10:22

Oh, they were amazed.

Presenter11:18

and the dirt was inside his skin, and he'd stand up when he was washed, and I washed him, and he was all white and marble. It's very easy for the most unfit body, if it's brown and suntanned, to look very fit when it isn't. But to see a white body, chiselled, I'm now so proud.

Presenter11:35

And where was the fiction in your life? Was there cinema? We had two, with The Empire and the Cinema House. You could see Jungle Book with Samboo, you could see Flash Gordon. It's extraordinary. Going to the Madness to see Flash Gordon, and I always enacted being Voltan, the Flying Hawkman. And of course, later on in life, I never envisaged, but I actually played the part in the film. Which is that was a very strange feeling. And is it true that the local cinema manager used to make an announcement, say, Well, Brian Blessed, please go home'cause his tea is ready. You've done your study very well yes. I'd go to the second house and the third house and the fourth house and it would please, will Brian Blessed please go home for his tea? His mother says he must come home.

Brian Blessed11:38

I would

Brian Blessed11:53

Uh

Brian Blessed11:56

Uh

Brian Blessed12:02

Please move.

Presenter12:13

And did you act at school?

Brian Blessed12:14

And did you add

Presenter12:15

Will, when I was eleven years old, I was asked to play Rumple Stiltskin. I remember the voice to this day. A little voice like the Rumple Stiltskin, Rumple Stiltskin, oh, could it so good it so could it so could and I did it. And the Edmaster said, Well, Blessed, you're a very good actor. And I said, Well, what's acting said a tremendous Yorkshire accent, very thick York. What's that? What's acting say? I said, Well, you better find out, Blessed. So I commenced to find out. Record number three.

Presenter12:42

Well, it it's Paul Robeson. Paul Robeson was played all the time, the great, that great bass baritone. All his songs were played, of course Old Man River was a great favorite. But my my favorite was the canoe song from Sands of the River.

Speaker 312:56

Are ye a boy naked?

Speaker 312:59

I a boy.

Speaker 313:03

Yeah.

Speaker 313:10

Why

Speaker 313:12

Oh yeah, I

Speaker 313:15

Oh yeagu dare, a current sweep, a water seas, a river run.

Presenter13:25

Paul Robeson and Canoe Song from Sanders of the River. You actually met him, didn't you? Oh, it's a miracle. There there was a tremendous festival. There was going to be no more war in the world. We'd had the war. It was now 1948 and a World Peace Congress took place in Sheffield. And thousands of people came from all over the world, from Russia, the Americas, nations joined together. This was never again. No Bosnias, no nothing. It wasn't going to happen.

Brian Blessed13:30

Oh, Isa.

Presenter13:50

And the climax of the occasion was at the town hall, a great concert, and Picasso was there. And the town hall, where?

Brian Blessed13:54

I'm a town

Presenter13:56

The town hall in Sheffield. There's a great this, and there's about two and a half thousand people there. I was fortunate to be in the audience. And I was actually sat alongside Picasso. I didn't believe it was Picasso. I was about 11 years old. I had this great thick Yorkshire accent. You're not Picasso, you're not Picasso. You don't sound Spanish at all. You sound more like Gama Miranda. And all the school kids were around me as well. And it's, well, this is the only way I can talk. And I said, if you're Picasso, draw something, draw something.

Brian Blessed14:10

You don't

Brian Blessed14:14

Bit hope.

Presenter14:21

And he drew this dove of peace, which I thought was awful. He says that proves it He looked awful. That proves you're not Picasso. I think that's awful. I'll draw you and I drew him a dove, and that doesn't look like a dove. And he offered it to me, and I turned it down.

Presenter14:35

But it's what he said to me, It's the first time I have a critic.

Presenter14:40

Awful terrible, isn't it? Awful, the the ignorance of children. But Picasso and Robeson in one of the films. Robeson and the we all waited because Robeson had made all these films. This great

Brian Blessed14:44

Gaps.

Brian Blessed14:45

Oh my god.

Speaker 314:51

Right black

Presenter14:53

who had made films in Wales with the coal miners, who who who could plead a cause. We waited for him and he he entered finally.

Presenter15:01

It's all still, and he enters with these two lions of gold, and he s he stood there, with his great black beaming face and gigantic eighteen stone body, and he put his hand up and he sang that canoe song, you know, Ayoko and he started off, and he made a most wonderful speech about peace.

Presenter15:21

And we were just everyone wept, and I rushed backstage we were very clever as children, I rushed back to the dressing room and got through Bill's legs, and I got and I sat on his knee,'cause I got all his records we all had.

Presenter15:32

I said, Mr Rose, Mr Rose, you didn't sing I still suits me you didn't sing I still suits me'cause he sang many songs. And he said, Well, um in actual fact, young man, he said, that's a duet.

Presenter15:44

Do you know the words?'Cause I sing it with my wife. I said, Well, yes, I I do, I do, I do So we started off Uh Does ye ever wash the dishes? Does ye do the things I wishes? Does ye do them? No, you won't Will you do them? No, you won't And he replied, No matter what you say, Ah still suits me And I I I sang with Po Rosa.

Brian Blessed16:03

Yeah.

Presenter16:04

And I went home that night just shaking with excitement.

Brian Blessed16:07

Power

Presenter16:08

Eleven. Eleven years old.

Presenter16:11

More music.

Presenter16:13

Well, uh I've I've uh chosen for the next record Daphnis and Chloe. I I I find it the most haunting of all music. I adore those wonderful tales about South America, the Mattagrosa, the Lost World, that marvellous continent of waterfalls, Angel Falls, blue morpho, butterflies, and ocelots and cod cods and

Brian Blessed16:26

That mom

Presenter16:33

and electric eels, and I I just to feel the dawn coming up daybreak through those jungles, and I think that Raval does it in Daphnis and Chloe beautifully.

Presenter17:46

Daybreak from Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe, played by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Pierre Broulez. So, Brian Blessed, you left school early, you had to, the family needed you out at work, bringing in some money. You worked in an undertaker's, you worked on a building site, but you acted with the local Amdram. Yes, I did. I left school really when I was barely fifteen. I was rather frustrated about that. I love school. I was going to be school captain, I was going to be eight, eighty yards champion, and this, that, and the other. And I had to leave because my father was injured by a roof fall, and I undertaker's assistant. But I did my schooling at night, and the the teachers helped me. And the amateur theatre now, I wanted to with all my soul be an amateur theater.

Brian Blessed18:20

Bad.

Presenter18:27

And they they gave you the lead, didn't they, in The Cure for Love? Well, it was to think, you know, that I was kind of a coal miner's son and Maxburg was on a hill and I made the transition from being somehow a young teenager to being an adult to be welcomed by people. I'd felt a bit of a failure. I had such terrible doubts, I almost had a nervous breakdown, and at sixteen for various reasons, and miraculously, my speech teacher got me over that. So you had a bad crit for that performance, didn't you? It was my first lead. And I was caned by the critics, and they said I overacted and so forth. I didn't mind that. But it was in the press. And lots of rather negative people, people in Yorkshire are very positive. Workmates on the building sites. Workmates on the building sites were very, very rude about it. And they printed at it, blown up the crit, and posted all over the building site. And I got into lots of scraps and fights. And I was surprised. I thought I was kind of a strong person, but it can happen to anybody. Then gradually I suddenly found that suddenly my hearing wasn't so good, which surprised me. Suddenly, from a distance, people seemed as if they were down a tunnel. And then I realised I was beyond parental help. You were kind of withdrawing from life. Withdrawing totally. And I couldn't stop. I couldn't stop the kind of negation and criticism that people had given me left, right, and centre from the building sites. You know, they said I was no good, and I was useless, and I couldn't act. And I found myself saying, I can act, I can act, I can act. And 12 hours and 24 hours a day, couldn't sleep. I suppose they thought you were affected. They did that I was above myself, that I shouldn't learn to lose my Yorkshire accent. Well, the thing about speech is I have kept my Yorkshire expression and naturally lost the accent, though I can apply it again whenever I want. And my speech teacher, who I went to once a week for half a crown, fifty miles I'd trek on my bike to Rotherham for my speech lesson. I went in one evening and I just wept in front of him. I said, I'm a failure, I'm useless. And I fainted. And he washed my face. He sang songs to me. He quoted some of the great poets to me, some of the great philosophers in my ear for about half an hour and I wept and wept and wept and wept.

Brian Blessed18:31

Will

Brian Blessed18:53

So you

Speaker 219:05

Uh

Brian Blessed19:05

What work

Brian Blessed19:07

What makes

Brian Blessed19:16

Yeah.

Brian Blessed19:33

Yeah.

Brian Blessed19:34

Yeah.

Brian Blessed19:53

I suppose they thought you were a a

Brian Blessed19:56

They did they thought that I was above myself, and I shouldn't

Presenter20:32

And I was cured.

Presenter20:34

But in the end, you left the building sites behind all of that and you got to the Bristol. Well, it was something.

Brian Blessed20:37

Or that

Brian Blessed20:38

Well it was something different.

Presenter20:40

It was my biggest I couldn't believe when I entered the doors of the Brisovic school, and inside was this mythological movement teacher, Rudy Shelley, who had helped me so much. Oh the air was like wine. And there was the suspension bridge in the background, and Clifton Bristol. And I was going to school again. I think that's thrilled me more than anything. Record number five. Well, record number five is Pat Doyle, who uh wrote the music for Frankenstein and uh Much Ado About Nothing, and has written the music for Henry V, Ken Branner's first film. Branner is a hero. We have this mild relationship. I love courage. You can never underestimate courage, physical courage. And that seven thousand British face sixty thousand French, and the French chose the ground at Agincourt. That is real courage facing the enemy. And this music i I think really says it all.

Speaker 221:34

No be stormy ne dominay nor no beast Sad normine sad normine Tod.

Presenter21:59

Non Nobis Domine from Kenneth Branner's Henry the Fifth, sung by Patrick Doyle and the Stephen Hill singers. Let's get back to mountains then, Brian Blessed. To Everest. When did you first fall in love with it? Her Yes, sir, very good, very good.

Brian Blessed22:11

Yeah.

Speaker 322:12

Uh

Brian Blessed22:12

Get it going.

Presenter22:13

Well, I was seven years old and I saw it in the Hotspur comic, this tale of Mary and Irving, who disappeared on Everstein 1924, and that haunted me. They were dressed in Norfolk jackets and puttees and Homburgs, and that they ascended a mountain five and a half miles high. Five and a half miles high, we thought, as young babies. My goodness, as far as Doncaster, Donnie, five and a half miles.

Presenter22:40

I was completely besotted by besides. I mean, you whose father went deep underground and that was all you knew about. Why should mountains suddenly appeal to you? Mountains I loathed and hated and feared. I found them terrifying. I also found them totally uninteresting as a child. And it wasn't until

Speaker 322:42

But I wonder if

Brian Blessed22:50

Yeah.

Presenter22:58

I was in Austria when I was about twenty-five years of age. I was in Innsbruck one day, and I decided to just amble up the hillside up there, and gradually got higher and higher, and suddenly the bells started peeling down below in Innsbruck, and then suddenly as I got higher and higher, even in the slowest movement, suddenly the mountains started to appear, and the bells and the mountains, and it was just kind of like a kind of veil being lifted. And I thought, where have you been all my life? There you are. That's who I am. Look at the mountains, mountains, mountains. It's a kind of spiritual experience. Total, total. Because you said before now that sometimes the need to conquer a mountain is connected with the need to prove your love for your wife, Hildegard Neill, for example. Well, I did. I feel that marriage is so easy. You can get married, you can get divorced.

Brian Blessed23:27

Yeah.

Brian Blessed23:29

A t total, total

Presenter23:44

Uh but somehow I feel you have to earn it.

Presenter23:48

And I felt that I had to climb the hardest route on Kilimancharo, and then I could propose to my wife. That sounds odd, doesn't it? But somehow I wanted to earn it. So you made your first attempt on Everest in nineteen ninety. This was for the BBC, following in the steps of Malin, as you say.

Brian Blessed24:02

Ali, as you say.

Presenter24:04

Apparently you saw ghosts up there. Yes. The first time I went I was at about twenty six thousand feet on the north face, and there in front of me there was Captain Noel and there was General Bruce and there was Malrie and Irving and all of them. This in front of me as you're doing very well. And and on this side you there've lots of adventures when you eventually come over here. Not yet, not for a long time yet, blessed. Lots of adventures over here that you never beyond your imagination. But you'll have to go down very shortly. Now I turned away and looked to the west and to the east and to the south.

Presenter24:34

And the image didn't follow me?

Presenter24:37

Then I turned back to the North Ridge again, and they were still sat there, and they were in their twenties gear. And you had the Norfolk jacket on as well, didn't you? I did. Yes, I had the same gear on, yes. Of course.

Brian Blessed24:43

Blood.

Presenter24:47

It means that I'm, as a person, I suppose, quite mad. People think I'm quite mad. And and I embrace that. I think when people tell me I'm mad, then I know I'm on the right track. Record number six.

Presenter24:59

Well, when I was on Everest I couldn't get it out of my head that wonderful theme of Sebelius's Fifth Symphony. I couldn't get it out of my head. And that's what I'd love now.

Presenter26:07

The End of Sibelius' Symphony No. V in E flat major, played by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, conducted by Sir Alexander Gibson.

Presenter26:15

So, Brian, you went again to Everest in the autumn of'ninety three.' You got to twenty eight thousand feet without oxygen. Now, sixteen people in your party reached the summit that time. You refused cylinder oxygen, so you physically couldn't conquer Everest yourself. Why did you do that?

Brian Blessed26:25

That time.

Brian Blessed26:27

Cylinder oxygen.

Presenter26:32

I just felt so that

Presenter26:35

The southern side of Everest is the so called easy side of Everest. Well, it's not easy at all. In fact, the objective dangers on that side are pretty dreadful, the ice fall, etcetera. So those sixteen who got to the summit did magnificently well. I mean, they're brilliant, and some of them nearly died. But I felt

Presenter26:51

There was no adventure on the southern side. 53, up went Hillary and Tensing, and it's been climbed many, many times since then. And I suddenly dawned on me it is much more of an adventure if a dotty, stupid fifty-eight-year-old tries it without oxygen. I was doing very well without oxygen. Let's see what I can do. And I hated the oxygen on my face and the masks. I was losing the mountain. I couldn't feel the mountain. This bloody mask on my face. Claustophobic and so forth. So I wouldn't have it.

Presenter27:20

I was going very fast. I was on the second assault team and I was actually a quarter of a mile ahead of everybody.

Presenter27:27

Oh, wonderful And I got to the South Coal and I came across a dead body, dead Indian who'd died.

Presenter27:32

He died horribly. He couldn't get into his tent, frozen. He'd not been able to unzip it, because he was so frozen. Had he unzipped it, he'd have been alive. Eric I said a prayer, sat by his body.

Presenter27:42

Now I I I'd somehow felt him talking to me go on without try go as high as you can without.

Presenter27:48

They set off at midnight, and I was tempted

Presenter27:52

The vanity of an actor.

Presenter27:54

No, I threw it away and said no and went on on my own when it got towards light, went on on my own. But of course you're going slower and you need backup. You need someone alongside you with oxygen in case you hemorrhage or in case your brain starts to blow and so forth. So it wasn't a case of fear. It wasn't a case of seeing a dead body and suddenly thinking I've really pushed myself as far as I can go. I wasn't even tied at 28,000 feet. I turned down because if I'd have gone on ahead on my own, I'd have endangered other people and I'd have died. Had I got backup with me? I did this without anyone knowing, you see. So why are you going again? I immediately disapproved of what I did. But I did this without anyone knowing, you see. But why are you going back again? Because you still need to conquer that mountain.

Brian Blessed28:02

I need someone else.

Brian Blessed28:09

So it wasn't a case.

Brian Blessed28:11

Audience suddenly thinks

Brian Blessed28:14

Yeah.

Brian Blessed28:26

So why are you going back to the surprise

Brian Blessed28:30

Yeah.

Presenter28:34

Few

Presenter28:35

The job is now unfinished. I will use oxygen, probably. I'll try and do it without. And have back up. Have two very strong Sherpas alongside me. But you're determined to get to the top. Yeah, and not for me. I'm going to get a lot of money for the Gurkhas, get money for this, and the Tiger, and things like that. You can't just climb these mountains and do these things for yourself. That's potty.

Brian Blessed28:44

But you

Presenter28:54

Next record.

Presenter28:56

Well, in actual fact, it is the Gurkhas, men of the hills, and the Gurkhas are the Sherpas on Mount Everest. They come from the Solo Kumbu, they come from Tibet, there's a Mongolian extract, and they're g they fought us in the war, we couldn't beat them, and they couldn't beat us, and East and West join together, and they love us over there. And on the mountains, I mean, they'll die for you, and they give so much and ask so little. And the man who begat the Gurkhas was General Bruce, who's on the expeditions in the 1920s, a giant of a man. He led the twenty-four expedition. And I've been given his ice axe by his family, which dates from 1879, this ice axe. And I'm going to use it next time on Everest, and I'm using it as a symbol to raise money for the Gurkhas.

Speaker 330:01

Uh

Presenter30:43

The band of the Brigade of Gurkhas and Men of the Hills, and their motto, I understand, is It's better to die than to be a coward.

Presenter30:50

So what about you on this island, Brian? You're not going to be happy unless it's got a mountain in the middle of it, are you? Very nice to have a mountain. They usually do. I mean, I did Return to Treasure Island, Longjean Silver. I was different parts of Jamaica, which was very interesting. And they had the Blue Mountains in the background, of course. But I was astonished at the kind of dangers of an island. The island can be quite hostile. Of course I

Brian Blessed31:13

Uh

Brian Blessed31:17

What are you?

Presenter31:19

You know, b people will say, Well, he's full of energy, Brian Blessed, and he has a very loud voice and this, that, and the other. But in Ashford I'm a very quiet man. On expeditions people have to bellow to get me to join them. I tend to be on my own lot. I enjoy being on my own, or of course you're not alone.

Presenter31:37

And I love to meditate twice a day for half an hour. I'm kind of relate that to the Shankrashari of northern India that I've done since I was twenty-seven years of age.

Presenter31:45

And I I find my greatest yearning is silence and stillness.

Presenter31:51

So the solitude I think I could cope with I think now I could cope with um not so if as a young man, but now I think so, that I can kind of face my fears. As a young man the blood is pounding very, very hard, and the problems are almost unreal and panicky.

Brian Blessed32:10

Last record.

Presenter32:11

Well, the last record is Stravinsky's writer's spring, that wonderful throbbing, almost like volcanoes. But I love, of course, the the whole piece. Again, it relates to my childhood, and I was so disappointed as a child that there were no dinosaurs. I'd love to be a time traveller and go back there and just sit and watch them, because I'm sure they're wonderful mothers. You know, they're always fierce, but they're wonderful darling mothers, the dinosaurs, and different coloured skin, and so forth.

Brian Blessed32:21

Cloud

Presenter32:37

And I miss all that, and and and I'd find kind of listening to uh Mr Binsky's writer's spring transcendental.

Presenter33:46

Part of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Bernard Heitink.

Presenter33:51

If you were only allowed to take one of those records on your desert island, Brian, would you like to? The Writer's Spring the Last One. It is uh varied that's rather volcanic and full of volcanoes. Then it goes very pastoral and very deep and very ritualistic and strange and poetic. It's wonderfully varied and it seems to kind of touch the brain on many levels. What about your book? I'd want to, because I've never quite understood it, or not remotely understood it, is Uuspensky's In Search of the Miraculous. Uuspensky was a scientist, writer, a tremendous explorer as well. He went round the world to try and find the meaning of life and what it was all about. And he travelled through he met all the rishis in India and went to different continents and ultimately ended back in Russia. Astonishing book, full of bravery and insight and poetry and passion. And what about your luxury?

Presenter34:38

Well, my luxury is a scarf from the Delai Lama. It's a beautiful patterned scarf that he gave me. I met him in 1990 and he advised me about Everest. And he's blessed me. I've seen him several times since then, and he's now ultimately given me this scarf. He wants me to place it on the top of Mount Everest. And so three mantras. A rather complex one for the peace of mankind, a mantra relating to the Delai Lama himself, and one to the mountain itself. So he believes you're going to get there. He does. He says, I'll suffer at this time, but I won't die. I won't get injured. But I'll go through hell. But I'll make it, he says.

Presenter35:15

Brian Blessed, thank you very much indeed for letting us hear your desert island discs. Thank you. Thank you.

Brian Blessed35:28

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.