Brian Blessed delivered a baby in Richmond Park: I bit through the umbilical cord then licked its face
The booming actor told an extraordinary – and rather graphic – story during a Radio 4 interview
The legendary Brian Blessed is full of fantastic anecdotes and he knows how to tell a story (here’s one about the time he punched Peter Capaldi in the face and knocked him out). But the one he told on Radio 4’s Midweek on Wednesday morning has to be heard to be believed – and even then host Libby Purves seemed to have her doubts…
During a discussion about childbirth, Blessed laid out the never-before-told tale of the time he stumbled across a woman giving birth in London’s Richmond Park and helped deliver the baby – even biting through the umbilical cord and tying it in a knot for good measure.
We’ll let Mr Blessed tell the rest in his own inimitable style (you'll have to imagine the booming voice yourselves) and simply leave you with the warning that it does all get a bit graphic…
BB: “Years ago, when I was in Z cars, about 1963, I was running all over Richmond Park and a woman was having a baby under a tree and there was nobody around. I’d been brought up with babies coming from a working class background, and helping with babies, and I rushed across to her and she was having the baby, got her legs open. ‘I’m having baby! I’m having a baby’ – she knew me from Z Cars – ‘It’s alright dear, breathe deeply! Breathe deeply!’ And gradually I got the baby…
LP: “You delivered a baby in a park?!”
More like this
BB: “Yes I delivered it in Richmond Park. And the afterbirth came out, and the clots – I got rid of the clots – then I got the afterbirth out then I bit it loose then I tied it into a knot… then I just called for help and eventually an ambulance came. I was covered in blood, my shirt was covered in blood, I was wrapping her, wiping her ‘It’s alright darling!’ and I was licking the baby’s face.”
LP: “Am I believing this?”
BB: “It’s absolutely true, absolutely true! I’ve never talked about it… But what I’m saying is, it was natural wasn’t it? I told her to breathe deeply, ‘push, push, push, push’ – because I’d seen my mother do all this...”
BB: "You can’t get your head round that can you Libby?"
LP: "If this extraordinary story is true, I can think of few less restful things than having Bran Blessed attend my birth in a park but there you go…”
We believe you Brian. And now the details of your story will haunt our dreams forever...
