Brian Blessed’s booming voice suits men accustomed to being obeyed. We rate him most highly in I, Claudius, where his Augustus helps make a complicated family absorbing; elsewhere, that familiar force can become self-parody.
Fi1m perspective
In I, Claudius (1976), Brian Blessed’s Augustus has other strong personalities to contend with, and the company suits him. Derek Jacobi holds our attention as Claudius without needing to be the loudest presence, leaving room for Blessed’s Augustus, Margaret Tyzack’s Antonia and Patrick Stewart’s Sejanus to remain distinct. We were gripped by the family intrigue because the actors made those competing personalities so easy to recognise. This is a useful performance to watch for how Blessed works with the others.
His early television breakthrough was PC ‘Fancy’ Smith in Z-Cars (1962–65), well before Prince Vultan in Flash Gordon (1980) made exuberance central to his screen identity. The booming voice can carry hearty warmth, rage or menace, which gives a director more to use than sheer loudness. But the performances after Vultan sometimes veered into self-parody. Once the familiar delivery becomes the attraction, there is less reason to attend to the particular man speaking.
Kenneth Branagh’s Shakespeare films gave that authority a regular setting, beginning with Exeter in Henry V (1989). Blessed returned as Antonio in Much Ado About Nothing (1993), among the supporting players around Branagh and Emma Thompson’s sparring lovers. We recommend that film for its persuasive romance, while finding some of the physical comedy too insistent. It is worth seeing him in a production where the central pleasure belongs to other actors, rather than expecting every appearance to provide another demonstration of his volume.
Later, animation and games made increasing use of his voice, with Clayton in Tarzan (1999) among the animation roles. That is a natural use of an actor whose vocal character is so readily recognisable, though recognition alone is a limited pleasure. We want the warmth or the threat to tell us something about the person speaking. Start with I, Claudius, and give Jacobi just as much attention.
Biography
Brian Blessed is an English actor. He trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and began his career in the 1950s.
He played Augustus in the 1976 BBC series I, Claudius and King Richard IV in the 1983 series Blackadder. Other credits include Prince Vultan in Flash Gordon (1980), Boss Nass in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), and Clayton in Tarzan (1999). He has also appeared in stage productions including the original London run of Cats (1981).
Blessed was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2016 for services to the arts and charity.
