The Time Brian Blessed Punched Out Peter Capaldi
Peter Capaldi in The History of Tom Jones
Some strange stories have crossed the news desk here at DWW over the past year, from Stef Coburn's rantings a year ago to the lesbian kiss "offence," but never did we think we'd see the words "Blessed," "punched" and "Capaldi" in the same sentence!
It may sound like a drunken debate over "who'd win in a fight, Brian Blessed or Peter Capaldi" but the very real life incident actually happened... if not quite as melodramatic as we've made it sound!
"I always shudder a little bit when I think of Peter Capaldi..." teases on time Trial of a Timelord star Blessed, speaking booming to the Radio Times.
"I was in The History of Tom Jones, the BBC serial, as wild squire Mr Western, he’s a great character lead, who loves Tom Jones and fights everybody. Peter Capaldi played a fop with a sword, and at the end of the series I shoot him. He says to me, ‘Now, I have you. Take out your sword, sir.’ And I just take out my gun and shoot him like Indiana Jones! But prior to that there’s a scene in which he challenges me and hits me across the face with a glove. My character is meant to turn round, give him a left hook and flatten him..."
<wince>We see where this is going... </wince>
"We thought we’d done the shot from all angles, but they said they’d do one more. This time I threw the punch, and – oh – I pulled it! For no reason Peter Capaldi had put his face forward, and I caught him in the face!"
He went flat on his back, his legs went up in the air, his arms went up, and I thought, ‘He’s in the death rattle!’ I shouted, ‘He’s down! I think he’s dying!’
Brian Blessed, yesterday.
Alarmingly, Brian reveals that Peter was taken to the hospital, apparently unconscious!
"They quickly got an ambulance and took him to hospital, but they wouldn’t attend him for a while because they thought he was in drag! He was still dressed as a fop with a beauty spot. He was alright, but he did had a cut above his eye. They brought him round and he didn’t have brain damage or anything like that. I felt so embarrassed, but it was his fault I promise you. After about three days he phoned from the hospital...."
Affecting a Scottish accent, Capaldi was embarrassed by the on-set mishap:
‘Hello, it’s Peter here. I know you feel embarrassed Brian, it was my fault.’"
And Brain speaks for us all in his relief that Peter survived the incident:
“So whenever someone mentions Peter Capaldi I’m bloody glad he’s still alive! I thought I’d killed the poor bastard!”
The fully recovered Peter Capaldi can be seen this coming Saturday in Mummy on the Orient Express, airing at 8:35pm UK time on BBC One/BBC HD and 9pm EST on BBC America.