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Brian Blessed claims the Queen’s favourite film is Flash Gordon: ‘She watches it every Christmas’

He suggested she once asked him to repeat quotes for her grandchildren

Jacob Stolworthy
Monday 10 August 2020 13:42 EDT
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Brian Blessed attends the World Premiere of 'Seve' at Empire Leicester Square on June 23, 2014 in London, England.
Brian Blessed attends the World Premiere of 'Seve' at Empire Leicester Square on June 23, 2014 in London, England. (Tristan Fewings/Getty Images)

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Brian Blessed claims to know the Queen‘s favourite film – and it’s one he starred in.

The actor and TV personality was speaking about the 40th anniversary of cult sci-fi film Flash Gordon when he made the revelation that it’s Queen Elizabeth II’s film of choice.

Blessed told Edith Bowman on Yahoo! Movies: “The Queen, it’s her favourite film. She watches it with her grandchildren every Christmas.”

Assuming her accent, he said: "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’?”

"Gordon’s alive" is one of the 1980 film's most famous quotes spoken by Blessed's character, Prince Vultan.

He isn’t the first person to claim to know what her favourite film is. Last year, author Adam Helliker – a royal family biographer – said it was Shirley Valentine, the 1989 Oscar-nominated film about Pauline Collins’s bored housewife who escapes to Greece.

Helliker told Fabulous Digital: “It turns out the film she most enjoys is Shirley Valentine, the tale of a bored, working-class housewife who runs off to Greece to find true romance.”

According to the author, her favourite TV show is Midsomer Murders.

In 2016, the Queen handed Blessed an OBE for his services to arts and charity.

Speaking about Flash Gordon’s legacy, he told Bowman: “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.”

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