Brian Blessed Is Cambridge University’s First Professor of Shouting

The veteran actor is ‘overwhelmed and humbled’ by the appointment.

Blessed arrives on the first day of term. ‘The Vice Chancellor asked me to tone it down a bit from my usual persona – so this should be fine’

‘What a year!  First the OBE, then this’.  I am truly (Brian) Blessed’.

‘The selection process was extremely rigorous, with course work and exams on:

• The history of shouting in Western and Eastern cultures
• The legal status of shouting in the US Constitution (with particular reference to the Fifth Amendment)
• Applications of shouting in Quantum Physics, and
• The role of shouting in Shakespeare and cheesy 1980s science-fiction movie remakes (that was my favourite!)’.

Blessed, a keen mountaineer, also met the main requirement of the testing programme:

• To start a major avalanche on Mount Everest by shouting at it from 20 miles away.

‘I’d like to dedicate this honour to all the quiet people who go unheard in our country – usually because of me’.