BRIAN Blessed, one of the lions of English theatre, has an ambition to travel to Mars. He says he has been on NASA’s back for years about sending him to the Red Planet, and even qualified as a cosmonaut after 800 hours of training in Moscow’s Star City.

But on Saturday, April 7 he will have his feet will be firmly on terra firma when he comes to Swindon for as he comes to the Wyvern Theatre for An Evening With Brian Blessed.

The son of a coal miner from Yorkshire has tackled everything from Shakespeare to Black Adder, Henry Fielding to Disney.

When he comes to Swindon he will stream out anecdotes in a rapid fire delivery talking about His career began on TV in 1962 when he played PC Fancy Smith in the BBC series Z-Cars, but he is probably best known for his period dramas where his huge personality reigns unchecked. He played Porthos in the The Three Musketeers, Caesar Augustus in I Claudius, and Long John Silver in Treasure Island.

Outside acting he was the master of ceremony at the Hong Kong handover. and he also met the Emperor of Japan when he was performing abroad.When he was last in Swindon at the Festival of Literature he spoke about the time he set off on a six-month expedition to the North Pole where Russian sailors on a submarine chorused: Gordon’s Alive, at the sight of him. It was a reference to his part of Prince Vultan in the 1980 film Flash Gordon.

He said that in the Arctic, he also had a run-in with a polar bear who ripped through his tent. Quick on his feet he bawled at it, before smacking the bear on the nose. It scurried off!

Brian also claims to have sparred with the Dalai Lama as he was a keen boxer when he was young.

He is brave in physical terms too, having climbed Mount Everest three times and also conquered Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Aconcagua in Argentina.

He appeared in four of Kenneth Branagh’s Shakespeare adaptations for film and is one of the options for voice of the sat nav TomTom.

Brian was the subject of the BBC documentary Who Do You Think You Are? in 2014 and became quite emotional tracing his ancestors.

He hams it up on the lighter side of entertainment in panto, musicals such as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, TV’s Celebrity Star In Their Eyes, and Have I Got New For You.

Tickets to see Brian at the Wyvern from 7.30pm are £28 and available from 01793 524481 or visit www.swindontheatares.co.uk - Flicky Harrison