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Last meal on earth Bulgarian yoghurt with sugar. First song at karaoke ‘The Impossible Dream’ from Man of La Mancha.
First object you’d save from your burning home My family and the pets are first. My tankard from the Dalai Lama with ‘Long Life’ engraved on it second.
Last time you exploited your position to get something I haven’t. Last funny thing you saw online Joke For The Day via my agent.
NEXT ISSUE 1 JUN
FIRST&LAST
BRIAN BLESSED The acclaimed actor and raconteur takes on our Q&A in which he muses on badgers, Bulgarian yoghurt, breakfast, and saying the word ‘bugger’ First record you ever bought Harry Roy & His Band’s ‘Tiger Rag’.
Last extravagant purchase A large model giraffe for my garden. First film you saw that really moved you Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs.
Last lie you told That I had flown round the moon on the Skylon spacecraft. First movie you ever went on a date to South Pacific.
Last time you cried When Misty my Jack Russell died.
First thing you do when you’ve got time off work Sit in my cabin and read.
Last great meal you cooked Porridge Oats. Milk and brown sugar! First crush Nancy Marshall when I was 16.
Last book you read The White Goddess by Robert Graves. Hard going but worth it.
First time you realised you were famous After ten weeks filming Z-Cars, I couldn’t walk down a street.
Last time someone criticised your work I don’t know. First three words your friends would use to describe you Primitive. Quiet. And my agent said ‘God’!
First job Aged 14 as an undertaker’s assistant making coffins.
Last crime you committed Speeding on the motorway in the Z-Car. First word you spoke My mother said that it was ‘bugger’ after another baby stole my rattle!
Last song you’d have played at your funeral I have no plans to pass away . . . or to be in The Stage obituary!
First thing you think of when you wake up in the morning Letting the dogs out and breakfast! An Evening with Brian Blessed, Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, Sat 11 May. See more of this Q&A at list.co.uk
The summer festival season gets in full swing over our next issue, though you do have a perfect excuse to enjoy the great indoors in June. Yes, it’s Edinburgh International Film Festival once again with another frenzy of premieres, retrospectives, guests and discussions. Spain is the country in focus with classic movies from Pedro Almodóvar, Icíar Bollaín and Pablo Berger, while the SNJO team up with the festival for a special live performance of Miles Davis’ epochal Sketches of Spain.
First great piece of advice you were given ‘Give, you bugger, give!’ by my drama teacher Harry Dobson. Last time you made an impulse buy and regretted it A large plastic elephant for my garden. It disintegrated.
Last time you were starstruck Watching my wife in the feature film England Made Me. First concert you attended Barbirolli and The Hallé Orchestra at Sheffield Town Hall.
First thing you’d do if you ran the country Stop badger culling. Last time you bought someone flowers This week, for my wife.
128 THE LIST 1 Apr–31 May 2019