OT: Interview with Brian Blessed

I’d sit outside my house aged six or seven reading the Beano, waiting for my father to get home from the coal mines. I’d see the light from his pit helmet shining through the mist and he’d pick me up with his blackened face and carry me into the house.

The BBC wanted me to be Doctor Who. They said, “William Hartnell is getting older. We’d like you to play the Doctor in a different way.” I was still a young man, so I said, “I’d be interested, but I want to make him Oriental. His name is Who, so I’d like to play him like Charlie Chan.” That terrified them. They went, “Good God, no!” and dropped the idea.