King Richard IV of England

Richard IV rules England with the volume turned all the way up — a booming, self-satisfied warrior-king who won his crown at the (fictional) Battle of Bosworth Field and never stops reminding everyone of it. He dotes on his heroic elder son, barely tolerates the sniveling Edmund, and treats every entrance as a chance to bellow about his own magnificence.

Brian Blessed simply does not do small, and the writers hand him a character built entirely out of that instinct: every line is a roar, every gesture a flourish. He turns bluster into pure comic oxygen, filling scenes so completely that the show's dry, scheming humour has something huge and ridiculous to bounce off.