A Blessed Bottom: how booming Brian inspired his daughter’s Shakespearean role
Rosalind Blessed explains how her force-of-nature father shaped her performance in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
May 2021
Whiskers, claws and applause: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats – in pictures
Since its debut in May 1981, the poetically inspired Cats has become one of the most popular stage shows in the world. Forty years on, here’s a look back at how the long-running musical began
February 2021
This much I know
Brian Blessed: ‘I’m only noisy when I choose to be’
The quiet and restrained actor, 84, tells Rich Pelley about exploring like Grampy Rabbit in Peppa Pig, not appearing as Dr Who and firing his bow and arrow at V-2 rockets
August 2020
How we made
How we made Flash Gordon – by Brian Blessed and Mike Hodges
Brian Blessed: Flash Gordon is the Queen's favourite film
July 2020
Flash Gordon review – bizarre expressionist superhero panto
'He's so strapping and virile': Patrick Stewart at 80 – by Shatner, McKellen, Tennant and more
January 2020
Brian Blessed: 'All my life, 90% of men have bored the arse off me'
Dressed in pyjamas and wellies, the great actor talks about his astronaut training in Russia, the original Cats – and putting his might behind his daughter Rosalind’s very personal plays
December 2019
Shortcuts
The strife of Brian: is it unchristian to use the f-word?
Actor Brian Blessed dropped the f-bomb after tripping during a charity church service. Was this just a faux pas – or a genuine sin?
April 2016
The Q&A
Q&A: Brian Blessed, actor – ‘All I’ll say about sex is, I don’t need that bloody blue pill'
Which words or phrases do I most overuse? Don’t let the bastards grind you down
March 2016
Readers recommend
Readers recommend playlist: songs about Yorkshire
Your weekly playlist of tunes on a theme picked by readers. Agree with their choices?
December 2015
Observer books of the year 2015
The best celebrity memoirs of 2015
Did Brian Blessed really punch a polar bear? – video
November 2015
A bird in the hand: the boy who threw away a Picasso
Actor Brian Blessed’s story of rejecting a drawing by Picasso is fascinating but odd: how could anyone not recognise a dove by the greatest artist since Raphael?
October 2015
Notebook
Oxford’s curveball interview questions are a great leveller
Catherine Shoard
The unpredictable university admissions process tests not recall but interpretation – the key skill in an age of randomness
David and Victoria Beckham and a less than caring society
Letters: Christina Patterson, on the Beckham ‘brand’, asks ‘why do we care?’. We don’t
Lost in showbiz
In search of the woman who will always be a little Brian Blessed
Brian Blessed reveals he bit through an umbilical cord – audio
Brian Blessed: I helped a woman giving birth under a tree deliver her baby
January 2015
Brian Blessed withdraws from King Lear due to heart condition
The actor, who recently collapsed on stage yet returned to finish the show, pulls out of production after 11 performances
