Author notes

Chapter 14 - Page 02

DAJB

on Sept. 20, 2009

I've said before that most of the characters' speech patterns in Shades are based on those of real people, some of them actors and one or two people I know in real life. I've no intention of telling you who most of those are but I feel strangely compelled to confess that Arturos's speech is modelled very closely on that of the English actor (and mountaineer) Brian Blessed.

I imagine that, outside the UK, he is best known for shamelessly hamming it up as Voltan, King of the Hawkmen, in the 1980s movie Flash Gordon. He is, however, also capable of some very sensitive and nuanced performances (notably as Caesar Augustus in the BBC's classic TV series I, Claudius). So, which of those characters is closest to Brian Blessed as he really is?

Watch this hilarious clip of him hosting the UK's topical news quiz Have I Got News For You and then you decide … this man is Arturos!
Brian Blessed clip