“It sounds like it’s on fire, it sounds like it’s full of energy – HARROGATE!”

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Brian Blessed spoke to our partners Cause UK about how his appearance in Harrogate next March will be a “magical” experience for him.

The actor and explorer is heading to the Royal Hall for a special one-man show, presented by Cause UK for the Harrogate Film Festival.

He has revealed the spa town is where he lost his heart to his wife, the actress Hildegarde Neil, who he married in 1978. The pair met while filming around the area for the Yorkshire TV series, Boy Dominic.

Brian said: “Hildegarde was the face of the ‘70s, and she was this very beautiful woman with grey-green eyes and black hair. She played Cleopatra with Charlton Heston, and was in England Made Me as Peter Finch’s leading lady, and The Man Who Haunted Himself with Roger Moore. She was in every magazine. Anyway, we were doing this series for Yorkshire Television filming around Harrogate, and I’ve climbed Mount Everest, I’ve done space training – you name it – and everyone was saying, for Christ Sake the pair of you are so in love, but I was filming with Hildegarde for about 15 weeks and we didn’t even hold hands!”

Brian added: “The time came, and I did eventually approach her and kissed her for the first time on her lips, and that required more courage for me than climbing Mount Everest! I was so shy. And we went to Harrogate to celebrate this moment. We went to a restaurant in Harrogate, and they’d prepared a lovely meal for us, and neither of us could eat it. It was beautifully put together and the chef was so upset, and the waiters were so upset, and they came to see us and said is the food not right? I said, ‘We’re so in love we can’t eat!’ Our stomachs and hearts were so in ecstasy that we couldn’t bloody eat!! That was it, and it was the start of our relationship and our marriage, and we’ve been married now for going on 50 years.”

The Yorkshireman will enthral audiences with tales from his life, acting career and his explorations, promising a larger than life night of laughter and tears.

He said: “Harrogate has a wonderful sound to it,” he begins. “It sounds like it’s on fire, it sounds like it’s full of energy – HARROGATE!”

An Evening with Brian Blessed is on Sunday 15 March 2020, 7pm, at the Royal Hall, Harrogate.