“Absolute Pandemonium: My Louder Than Life Story” by Brian Blessed
I picked this book up after reading another of Blessed’s biographies, A Panther In My Kitchen. While that book was a collection of anecdotes about the animals he’s had throughout his life, I was hoping this would be a more linear telling of his life. And while that’s not what I got, it was still a great read.
Open Absolute Pandemonium and you'll be taken on a riotous journey from his childhood, growing up the son of a miner in Goldthorpe, to finding fame in Z-Cars. You'll see Brian falling for Katharine Hepburn on the set of The Trojan Women, suffering wires strapped round his wotsits as he was hoisted into the heavens on Flash Gordon, almost causing an international incident when meeting the Emperor and Empress of Japan, and winning round George Lucas to get the role of Boss Nass on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
Along the way he takes secret revenge on headmistress Mrs Jarman and her very big bottom, punches Harold Pinter, loves and hates Peter O'Toole, woos his beautiful wife Hildegard Neil and braves the shocking death toll on cosy TV drama My Family and Other Animals. Crammed with anecdotes from his illustrious career, this is a funny, warm-hearted, life-affirming, LOUD and unique memoir from a much-loved figure.
Brian Blessed is less of a man than an icon. Anyone living in the UK, and most other parts of the world, most likely, recognise him. One of those beings who is less a real person than a character in himself.
And his life, as least as he tells it, has been pretty much what you’d expect. His childhood, maybe only as far back as the 1940s in reality, feels like another place and time. And then the things he’s done, the travelling, the studying acting back in the days of repartee theatre. None of it seems real. He feels as if he’s from another age. One of the great Victoria explorers and naturalists, transported 100 years ahead of his time.
I know there is likely a fair deal of embellishment in the telling. But if there is, it’s done in a way that perfectly suits his character.
I can’t say I absolutely loved this book. But it wasn’t what I was expecting, and so maybe my expectations played into that.
When I come into an autobiography, I expect to be told the story of someone’s life more or less linearly. But this isn’t what Blessed does. It starts that way, but soon enough, he’s skipping forward
