Acting One of Blessed's earliest roles was that of PC "Fancy" Smith in the
BBC television series
Z-Cars, between 1962 and 1965. In 1966, he appeared in a production of
Incident at Vichy at the
Phoenix Theatre in London. Also in 1966, he was offered the titular role of
the Doctor in BBC's sci-fi drama,
Doctor Who, to take over from
William Hartnell, but had to turn it down due to conflicting projects. In 1967, he played Porthos in a 10-part BBC adaptation of
The Three Musketeers. Blessed also had minor roles in cult TV series such as
The Avengers (1967, 1969) and the original
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) (1969). In 1971 he starred opposite
Bernard Holley,
Phyllida Law,
Angharad Rees,
Peter Sallis,
Eric Thompson and
Brian Wilde, in the television film
The Bristol Entertainment. He interpreted the role of King
Mark of Cornwall in the
HTV television series
Arthur of the Britons (1972–1973). He appeared as William Woodcock in the
Yorkshire Television series
Boy Dominic (1974). He played
Caesar Augustus in the
BBC Two drama series
I, Claudius (1976), Vargas in the ''
Blake's 7 episode Cygnus Alpha (1978) and Basileos in The Aphrodite Inheritance (1979). He hosted a docudrama on the life of Johann Sebastian Bach called The Joy of Bach'' (1978), in which he also played Bach in a number of scenes. Blessed also appeared in two episodes of the British science fiction television series
Space: 1999. He played scientist Dr Cabot Rowland in the 1975 episode "
Death's Other Dominion" and Mentor in the 1976 episode "
The Metamorph". Blessed played Long John Silver in the 10-part serial
Return to Treasure Island (1986), King Yrcanos in the
Doctor Who serial
Mindwarp (1986), General Yevlenko in the mini-series
War and Remembrance (1988), and Lord Loxley, the father of
Robin Hood, in the Hollywood film
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991). In 1981, Blessed appeared in
Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical,
Cats, as both
Old Deuteronomy and
Bustopher Jones, for the original West End theatre production. Blessed has appeared in a number of
Shakespearean roles on both stage and screen, including four of the five Shakespeare films directed by
Kenneth Branagh: as the
Duke of Exeter in
Henry V (1989), Antonio in
Much Ado About Nothing (1993), the
Ghost of Hamlet's Father in
Hamlet (1996), and both
Duke Frederick and
Duke Senior in
As You Like It (2006). In comedies, Blessed portrayed
Prince Vultan in the film
Flash Gordon (1980); the mad, comical figure of
Richard IV in the first series of
The Black Adder (1983), a role Blessed has claimed to be one of his most cherished; and Spiro Halikiopoulos in the TV mini-series
My Family and Other Animals (1987), a BBC adaptation of
Gerald Durrell's
book by the same name. Blessed has joked that he was due to appear in
Blackadder II (1986) as
Elizabeth I, but was unavailable for filming. In 1989, he made an appearance in the comedy/drama
Minder, as
Detective Inspector Freddie Dyer of the
Serious Crime Squad in the episode
The Last Video Show. In 1997, Blessed portrayed Squire Western in the
BBC adaptation of
Henry Fielding's 1749 comic novel
Tom Jones. He later recalled accidentally punching
Peter Capaldi whilst filming and said of the event, "I thought I'd killed the poor bastard." In 1999, Blessed provided both the voice and live-action reference for the
CGI character
Boss Nass in
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, and also provided the voice of the villainous hunter
Clayton in Disney's animated feature film
Tarzan, a role he later reprised in the video game based on the film and in the critically acclaimed
Kingdom Hearts in 2002; he also did the
Tarzan yell after
Tony Goldwyn was unable to do it himself. He voiced "Sir Morris" in the 1999 cartoon series
The Big Knights. He read the story "The White City" for the album series
Late Night Tales, recording it in four parts released over four albums, and was also the voice of
Jean Valjean in
Focus on the Family Radio Theatre's audio adaptation of
Victor Hugo's
Les Misérables. Blessed was one of the narrators for
Story Teller, a children's magazine partwork series in the 1980s. He has further provided vocal links for the
Sony-Award-winning
Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show on
Virgin Radio, and introduced advertisements for
Orange mobile phones. in 2007 In 2002, under the direction of
Royal Shakespeare Company director
Adrian Noble, he originated the role of
Baron Bomburst for the stage musical version of
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. From December 2005 to January 2006, Blessed headlined the
Christmas pantomime production of
Peter Pan, alongside
CBBC presenter
Kirsten O'Brien, at
Ipswich's
Regent Theatre. From 2007 to 2008, he appeared in the same play as
Captain Hook at the Grove Theatre in
Dunstable; he reprised the role for the Christmas 2008 season at the
Fairfield Halls,
Croydon. For Christmas 2006, he presented a production of
Cinderella for Virgin Radio, starring
David Tennant,
Thandiwe Newton and others. Since October 2008, Blessed has presented the English-language dub of the Japanese TV game show
Unbeatable Banzuke on
Challenge, under the pseudonym "Banzuke Brian". He was the narrator of the
Sky 1 series
Crash Test Dummies, starring
Steve Marsh and Dan Wright. In animation, he has provided the voices of Bob in
Kika & Bob (2008) and Grampy Rabbit in
Peppa Pig (2004–present). In 2009 Blessed starred with his wife, Hildegarde Neil, in the short film
Mr Bojagi. Following a Facebook campaign,
satellite navigation manufacturer
TomTom recorded Blessed's voice for use in its products; he has been available as a voice command option since October 2010. In September 2010, Blessed recorded the voice of Great Sultan Shahryār for
Sheherazade, or The Princess, the Pirate and the Baboon!, an album of children's stories set to
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's classical music composition
Scheherazade, co-starring
Rory Bremner and released as an instalment of ''Grandma Dingley's Ingeniously Musical Tales'' in 2011. In 2018, Blessed voiced German military engineer
Konrad Kyeser in the open-world medieval
RPG,
Kingdom Come: Deliverance. He voiced the megalomaniacal Red Ivan in the 2021 base building game
Evil Genius 2: World Domination.
Music In 2009, Blessed featured in the song "Army of the Damned" from the album
Beneath the Veiled Embrace by British
power metal band
Pythia, reciting the poem "
Suicide in the Trenches" by
Siegfried Sassoon. Blessed also appeared on their 2014 album
Shadows of a Broken Past. He had previously contributed to the song "The Joust" by Christian band
Eden Burning in 1994. Blessed contributed vocals to the track 'Sonic Attack' on the 2015 Hawkwind album 'Space Ritual Live'. In 2017, Blessed was featured in "If you remember" music video, singles from British indie band, The Ramona Flowers. As of November 2024, the video had reached over 725,000 views. It is also his first appearance in a music video and called it a "great adventure". The music video was directed by
Roger Sargent and produced by Connor Simmons. Blessed contributed to the spoken word intro track 'The Prophecy' from
Saxon's 2024 album
Hell, Fire and Damnation.
Other work Blessed has completed 800 hours of space training at
Star City in Russia. In 2004, Blessed appeared on and won an episode of
Celebrity Stars in Their Eyes, impersonating the opera singer
Luciano Pavarotti. He appeared as an expert and commentator on the satellite channel
UKTV G2 during the
2006 World Cup. Blessed also appeared on
A Question of Sport in 2006 and 2011, and was a guest host on the
BBC's satirical quiz show
Have I Got News for You in May 2008 and April 2013 (also making a surprise appearance in the 2008 Christmas special).
Downloadable content for the computer game
War of the Roses featured narration by Blessed. In 2013, he received the Spirit of Hammer Award at the
Metal Hammer magazine's
Golden Gods Awards. On 14 August 2014, Blessed was the subject of an episode of the BBC documentary series
Who Do You Think You Are?, tracing the lives of his ancestors. ==Expeditions and adventures==