Before I even manage to ask a question, Brian Blessed takes me on your everyday anecdote of how a Shetland pony worked its way into his kitchen, writes Brian Blessed. He lets it back into its paddock before giving me a call.

While I’m now not sure I can top that with anything I ask, we are here to talk about Brian’s tour which sees him hit the Theatre Royal in Brighton.

I still haven’t asked anything as he talks me through tales of his work on his cabin, where he keeps busy with his many animals.

Finally I manage to get a question away…

How are you finding your shows so far?

I’m enjoying them enormously because I’m being myself and the audience loves that.

It just takes off and the audience and I share the evening together.

I never quite know what I’m going to say, I’ve got a rough idea, but it really depends on how the audience is.

It ranges from adventure to acting, and then films and television too, right through to my space training.

Since I was a child I’ve always been mad on space, you went to the cinema, we had two cinemas – in Goldthorpe, South Yorkshire – and every Friday was Flash Gordon, in black and white, with Buster Crabbe.

It was brilliant, we’d see half an hour each week and you’d never know how he was going to escape from his perils.

I always pretended afterwards, running down the embankment, that I was Voltron.

I never thought that one day I’d play him.

So wherever I go; the Antarctic, Arctic, South America, The Himalayas, just to see Tom, Dick and Harry in London, everybody wants me to say “Gordon’s Alive!”.

It’s a cry for freedom.

Do you get tired of people asking to hear it so much?

Not at all. I was in a school the other week, talking to these Year 7 students, and one stands to ask a question and just says “Flash, a-ah”. I did the O2 arena a while ago and they were giving me an award, I was with the likes of Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath, and they announced that I was the voice of Grampy Rabbit in Peppa Pig, it got a standing ovation.

Well of course it would do…

I’ve just done some more Grampy Rabbit sketches, I take them to the moon and stuff like that, and apparently, while we get a very nominal wage, it’s made a huge amount of money.

Do you find it incredible that your work has been able to cross so many generations?

I think my main message, especially in my one-man show, is that I tell the audience that nature doesn’t cheat.

There’s no one like you, we all have something that nobody else has and you should take the chance to go for it and follow your dream and not let the b******* grind you down.

We are all very gifted and we need to bring those out more and more.

For me, adventure is the key to that, more than anything.

Well for this show you’ll be exploring Brighton, it’s a city you know quite well.

Oh yes, I know Brighton and Hove Albion and of course the seafront and the history of the city.

I love the buildings, the Pavilion, the whole thing, I think it’s a magical place.

It’s almost a bit of a mix of Kew Gardens and Kathmandu.

There’s a feeling about that air, that beautiful air, the promenades – it was Laurence Olivier’s favourite place.

I did a lot of judo in my time, I’ve got a black belt, and I was taught by a man called Joe Robinson, who lived a large part of his life in Brighton.

You’d see him running up and down the beach, this Adonis, the greatest judo champion the world has ever known.

I remember going to the Theatre Royal to see The Incident at Vichy by Arthur Miller, and it was starring Alec Guinness.

We had a very strong relationship, and he always said it was his favourite place.

You clearly know how to adventure. Is there anything left for you to do that you haven’t done yet?

I want to get out there in space, that’s for sure.

I’ve already completed space training in Moscow and with Nasa, so I’m fully trained.

I want to do a huge series on travelling the Solar System.

Things like going down to the bottom of the sea, the Mariana Trench, for the challenge it would be.

You know a third of Canada has only be surveyed by helicopter, half the lost world in Venezuela – Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lost World – is completely unknown, and one and a quarter-million square miles of Russia, leading down to Mongolia, where the Yeti is frequently seen, is completely unexplored.

I’ve been to Mongolia, I’ve climbed the highest mountain there.

It’s a lot of our planet, something completely different, that’s totally unexplored.

So what is it that kickstarted this love of exploration?

It’s a great love of life.

Acting is a must, you must act if you’re going to be an actor, you’ve got no choice.

But going to Everest, or the lost world, or North Pole, is life, there’s a huge difference.

Acting in itself is pretending.

I don’t mean it’s pretentious, it’s pretending. You’re playing a part.

I think things like awards are very counter-productive, they make actors who don’t win them feel lowly, and you can win an award for everything now.

I think actors must be beggars, vulnerable, they must never believe their own publicity.

My biggest love in life is exploration, but I can act, I’ve always been able to act, I enjoy it.

My life is very full.

What can people expect from your show?

I want to give them hope. One mustn’t give up.

I think we, as mankind, are going to make it because everyone has something that makes them different. I want to tell stories that people have never heard before.

I want the whole evening to be fun, and original, and full of surprise. I want to become one with the audience. I want them to go away, with me having changed every cell in their bodies.