For over 30 years Brian Blessed has been at the top of the acting tree; those booming tones and perfect elocution never failing to fascinate - especially during radio broadcasts.

One morning last year, he single-handedly stole the Simon Mayo show, revealing far more about his role in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace than its producers would have liked.

Blessed first appeared on the box in the Sixties as PC 'Fancy' Smith in Z Cars and has been in work ever since - his name remaining top of most casting agents lists when they're looking for an actor of power, authority and with the ability to blow the wax out of an elephant's ears with just one sneeze.

Little wonder Disney bosses hired his vocal talents for their animated version of Tarzan. In the movies, Blessed has the ability to fill a screen - and not just with his physical presence. While most kids growing up during the early Eighties were dazzled by the special effects in Flash Gordon, that movie now looks like a mere platform for his sublime performance as winged warrior, Prince Vultan.

Who could forget the classic soundbite: "Gordon's alive?" or the simple command "Dive!" spoken with eardrum-shattering clarity?

Brian went on to make a memorable cameo as Robin Hood's father in Prince of Thieves and when he's not treading the boards or upstaging fellow thesps, thinks nothing of scaling Everest for fun.

At 64 - an age when most men are taking things easy - Blessed is busy planning his next trip to some far-flung corner of the world. In the last 10 years alone, he has made three assaults on Mount Everest and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and Aconcagua in the Andes.

However, one of his favourite treks was to South America's Lost World in Venezuela - a boyhood dream come true.

His love for the latter stemmed from a BBC adaptation he heard during his youth. Because of the Wednesday lunchtime airing which bled into lessons, it led to several canings from his headmaster for poor time-keeping.

The young lad was eventually asked the reason for his lateness and explained he was listening to The Lost World on the radio. Mexborough's wannabe Indiana Jones believed it was worth getting caned for.

Brian received a public apology and was allowed to listen to the last two episodes without fear of punishment.

In the years since then, Blessed has been far from a shrinking violet, but while he may be known as a loud man, appearances can be deceptive.

Kenneth Branagh, who directed the bearded thesp in Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing, said of the formidable star: "Brian Blessed is the quietest, stillest man I've ever met."

"I love peace," Brian remarked in one interview. "I love serenity, and on mountains I can go for days and days without talking to people. Silence - that's an adventure."

Aside from exploring and acting, Blessed's other great passion is animal welfare. Together with his wife, Hildegard, he helps protect all manner of beasts but their sanctuary and his treks to the great unknown has lead the couple to the verge of bankruptcy on more than one occasion.

"I work to feed the animals and if I go away on long expeditions, then it costs us money," he remarks. "The responsibility of running the house all falls on my wife's shoulders and at times that's quite a burden. I'm the breadwinner and I'm not supplying the money. But I have to do my adventuring."