Gordon's Alive! Brian Blessed reveals Queen's 'favourite' film on Flash Gordon anniversary

And to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 1980 sci-fi classic, Flash Gordon, one of its stars, Mexborough-born Brian Blessed, has revealed how the film also secured a place in the heart of the Queen.

Blessed, known for his huge stature and booming voice, has recalled the story many times in his touring one-man shows, but the tale has now gone viral after he re-told it to broadcaster Edith Bowman on Yahoo Movies, for a piece celebrating the anniversary.

He told how Flash Gordon is Her Majesty’s top choice to watch with her grandchildren, and most likely her great-grandchildren, each Christmas.

"Everywhere I go, they all want me to say 'Gordon's alive!'," Blessed, who stars as Prince Vultan in the film, said.

"The Queen, it's her favourite film, she watches it with her grandchildren every Christmas."

The 83-year-old actor followed up by impersonating Her Majesty's voice, saying: "You know, we watch Flash Gordon all the time, me and the grandchildren. And if you don't mind, I've got the grandchildren here, would you mind saying 'Gordon's alive'?"

He added: "Everywhere I go, they all want me to say 'Gordon's alive!'. The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, horses and queens, and prime ministers, they all want me to say, 'Gordon's alive!', it's their favourite film."

Last year, speaking to the Yorkshire Post, Blessed told how the phrase had even followed him to the North Pole.“It haunts me to this day,” he said. “I go anywhere and I get it yelled at me. I was on the North Pole ice pack a few years back and this bloody Russian sub comes up from under the ice and smashes its way to the surface.

“Up comes the conning tower and then, to my amazement, out comes the admiral. It was like Red October all over again.

“I looked at him, he looked at me, and he recognised me. He said ‘Say your line!’ So I took a deep breath and shouted, ‘Gordon’s Alive!!!!!’ and he turned went back inside his sub and obviously went away a very happy man.”

Blessed has said he’ll “never retire” and prior to lockdown, appeared at Harrogate Film Festival in March. During the early weeks of lockdown, he raised almost £1,000 for the NHS by adding a line of ‘Don’t Let Covid Grind You Down’ t-shirts to the array of merchandise on his official website, which has also included beard oil and grooming products - a far cry from his childhood growing up as the son of a miner in South Yorkshire.

Whether the story of the Queen’s movie taste is tall remains to be seen, but there are many other stories the actor recalls which, seemingly far-fetched, are in fact, very real.

Speaking to the Yorkshire Post in January, Blessed, who describes himself as “50 per cent actor, 50 per cent explorer,” spoke of his larger than life escapades, including climbing Mount Everest in the 1990s, and taking part in space training.

For some, such expeditions may be out of reach, but Blessed said the greatest danger in life “is not taking the adventure”, whatever that may be.

He said: ““Everybody’s got their Everest. It can be your projects, it can be your greenhouse, whatever it is. It might be eventually taking one more step in your Zimmer frame in hospital. The greatest danger in life is not taking the adventure. You’ve got to go for it.”