Latest news with #BrianBlessed
The Sun
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Brian Blessed blasts ‘ignorant pigs' who put trigger warnings on Shakespeare plays
ACTOR Brian Blessed has howled down trigger warnings on Shakespeare plays — and he didn't bother with poetic Bard-style language by dismissing them as 'b***s'. The thunderous-voiced thespian labelled theatre bosses 'ignorant pigs'. The Sun told of Hamlet audiences being warned of 'coercive behaviour' and 'grief, suicide and mental illness' at London's National Theatre. There have also been warnings about Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. Flash Gordon star Brian, 88, has appeared in Henry V, Macbeth and Much Ado About Nothing. He told a sci-fi convention: 'It's bs. It's f***ing Shakespeare. 'He is the greatest writer on the planet. 'People see his plays the length and breadth of this country and they are full of amazing things. 'There are so many ignorant pigs around.' To hammer his point home, Blessed then quoted a famous line from The Tempest adding: 'Prospero said 'We are such stuff as dreams are made on and our little life is rounded with a sleep'.' It means our short lives are fleeting like dreams and therefore not real - just like the action people see in plays on a stage. Blessed made a name for himself after appearing in movies Flash Gordon, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves as well as on TV shows Z-Cars, Blackadder and I, Claudius. Terry and June to get woke warning - 80s comedy show 1
Scotsman
06-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
My Festival: Mike McShane: 'When I stay at people's houses I go through their cheese selections'
The improv veteran turned cat-stroking supervillain on how best to deal with bad notices and the time he was stalked by vengeful seagulls all the way down the Royal Mile Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... There are thousands of shows in Edinburgh this month. Please tell us why we should come and see yours. I'm evil, I'm wearing an eyepatch, holding a stuffed Persian cat and using vocal production at a level only dogs can hear. They actually tell you in a warning at the Pleasance. Not unlike a Brian Blessed Installation Announcement in West End theatres. So come and be blessed at a competitive rate! Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Mike McShane in The Spy Who Went to Rehab | Contributed What will we learn from your show that we didn't know before? The Spy Who Went To Rehab juggles the cliches of 12-step programmes and their participants, with an understanding and respect for its actual effectiveness. You may learn something about yourself, Western male fantasy culture, and the influence of Architectural Digest in supervillains' lairs and lives. Who or what was the biggest inspiration for your show? Michael Lonsdale, Max Von Sydow, Divine and the playwright, Gregg Ostrin. What's the best review you've ever had, and the worst? Best was on Loose Ends after Ned Sherrin asked me to perform the 'Plump Jack' speech from Henry IV, Part I, with Timothy West sitting across the table from me. When I finished, I dared to cast a glance at Mr West; he gave me a slight smile and nod. I was very grateful for it. Worst? I toured a production of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest with Isla Blair and Danny Webb. I was playing Chief Bromden. One of the cast members invited me to have an early tea with his friend before our show, all very nice, with chips. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Then a review of the show came out a couple days later which the critic chose to pick me out for scorn, saying that I looked like Haystack Calhoun and had none of the bearing of the 'Noble Savage'. The critic was the cast member's friend who I'd had tea with. It struck me, even as I had been told years before by an actor wiser than me: 'Believe none of them, take none to heart; you've got work to do.' Also that it was lazy writing, made of the 19th century romantic pulp cliches that are like little Home County eyemasks for people of that man's generation. I wish I could have dragged him in front of my birth mother, a full blooded Ojibwe woman from Garden River in Canada. I bet she would have set his pink arse straight. Apparently, from other relatives, she was an Indigenous version of Janey Godley. Who or what are you most excited about seeing this year? My neighbour in the States is a Scottish fellow named Colin Cox, and he has a show at the C Venues, called Not Without Right: Shakespeare's Secrets. Then John Hegley every year if he's there, he's sharp, kind and welcoming in his own very sweet way; Showstoppers, just to remind me that your culture gave an Olivier to a group of improvisors, and see it as a viable artistic form. We still have trouble with that in America, but we're trying. I also just walk into anything if where I'm going to is sold out. I'm a big believer in another line from Henry IV Part I, when Prince Hal says: 'And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.' Mike McShane (in non-supervillain mode) | Daniel Reichert Who do you most like spending time with in Edinburgh? My friend Anne Marie. She works for the NHS, and as my birth mother was a healthcare worker and the mother who raised me a nurse, I have a lot of respect for those who do all the jobs that keep us out of pain and fear of poverty from illness, and the challenges they have with the governments of our respective countries. She's brash, smart and full of heart. And her mother, now gone, tripped and fell on me, knocked me over, and we rolled down York Street in the rain for about five car lengths, laughing and screaming like chimps. That didn't take her out; she lived for many more years after that; but this is a hearty family. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Make sure you keep up to date with Arts and Culture news from across Scotland by signing up to our free newsletter here. Tell us something about you that would surprise people. When I stay at people's houses, I open their fridge and go through their cheese selection; then use that to judge their morals and ethics. What are the best and worst things that have happened to you at a festival? Best: the Dagda Bar on Buccleuch Street has been a continual favourite for adventure, and intelligent drunken discourse; one night I was sitting there nursing an ale and this guy with an intense face and Ben Turpin moustache was just staring at me, sipping his beer. He came over to me and said his name was Nick. We started talking and he was a veteran, Falklands, as I recall. I'm a veteran too, so I'll always have time for this. He said would I like to come back over to his place. I was feeling warm and jolly, so why not! We stepped out of the bar, walked directly across the street standing in front of an 18th century building, which was the Archers Hall, the clubhouse of the Royal Company of Archers, whom have served as the Royal Family's bodyguard in Scotland since the early 19th century. We entered from the side as he was the caretaker of the building along with his wife, June. He explained its origins as he poured. I was overwhelmed with his hospitality and the place's history. It was 3am when I rolled home, blazing and wide awake with the wonder of the martial spectacle and building itself. I always looked them up when I was here. He's gone now, I found out last year, as well as June. But they were great people. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Worst? Again, long ago, and incredibly early in the morning, I staggered out of the now closed Cannon Mill Bakery, mangling a fresh sausage roll, trying not to cauterise my mouth or paint myself with grease. I crossed over the South Bridge, and cut a left down the Royal Mile to my digs. It was pretty quiet, last week of Festival quiet, and among the broken glass and mangled flyers there was a dead seagull lying on the cobblestones amongst it all. I stopped and had a moment of mortal showbiz contemplation, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw three other seagulls eyeing me; and the thought suddenly seized me; they thought I'd killed their trash brother. I started walking down past the World's End – they followed, occasionally letting out a sharp cry, and hoisting their wings in a gunslingers' feint. I picked up speed, they matched me. I was now in full run, like a greasy, drunken sausage-scented Tippi Hedren, and cut sharply into a close and into my flat. breathless, knowing I'd just escaped a deadly Full Scottish Peckfest. What's the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night? I say good morning to those have gone before me, and hope they will help me that day. At night, after I read for an hour, I close my eyes and I imagine I'm walking off a field after a good game, and I thank everyone I played with, my friends, my ancestors, and those I've hurt, I ask them for forgiveness. Thanks for the interview! We'd like to buy you a drink. Where are we going and what are we drinking? Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The Dagda Bar and a session ale is fine, thank you very much.
BBC News
17-02-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Thirsk: Retired teacher who has appeared on 32 TV quiz shows
A retired maths teacher who has appeared on 32 TV quiz shows in 30 years says he is "absolutely hooked" on the concept. Cornelius O'Donovan, from Thirsk, began a lifelong love of quizzing when playing board game Trivial Pursuit in the 1980s, and has since gone on to enter The Weakest Link and The Chase. He enters into the spirit with brightly-coloured outfits and his laugh, likened to that of actor Brian Blessed, is a hit with faced Anne Robinson in 2007 and Bradley Walsh in 2009. His first appearance was on Say the Word in 1997, and other credits include Pass the Buck, Breakaway and Two says his favourite host was Walsh on The Chase because "he did his best to put all the contestants at their ease" and has "grown with the show".He would even consider becoming one of the Chasers himself in future. He is also an avid collector of Trivial Pursuit editions, which help him accrue knowledge."In order to become a good quizzer I think you need to know as much as you can about as much as is out there."Different versions have different questions in - I particularly like the style of questions in Trivial Pursuit."Asked whether he finds the questions difficult, he says: "Not now, no - because very often I would remember a question for my wrong answer to it, rather than the right answer."It takes a while to get through 6,000 questions and answers and to remember the right answer, rather than the wrong answer." Cornelius has earned £17,500 in prize money from his attempts. but has never "won big" and regrets that he was never accepted onto Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?"I think most people who haven't been on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? would have loved the opportunity, and I spent a lot of money trying to get on when we used to have to make a telephone call back in the late 1990s, to no avail."He is getting close to the record set for the most appearances, being just two short of David St John's 34, which was verified in London in 2014."I hope to beat the record one day, but a lot of the shows now have a push for new, younger players."Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here.
