Cash-strapped council spends £4k hiring Brian Blessed as tour guide Blessed, of Surrey, has recorded the top tourist attractions in the area on the audio guide, including Rochester Castle, Fort Amherst, Dickens World, Rochester Cathedral and Chatham dockyards. Once you've been up there every cell in your body is changed. You'll never feel the same again. The Alps will look like pimples. Medway Council said it hoped the attraction would boost visitor numbers. Locals, who had a two per cent increase in council tax this year, said it was a "total waste of cash." Graham Benson, 43, said: "How can the council think this is appropriate? Hiring Brian Blessed to provide an audio commentary is hardly likely to get tourists coming here in droves, in fact it's more likely people will jump off the bus as soon as they hear him speaking. It's a total waste of £4,000 as far as I can see. Samantha Casson, 34, said: "It might be funny listening to him for a while, but you certainly wouldn't want to hear him wittering on for the entire bus trip - you wouldn't be able to hear anything else. Surely the council could have thought of someone more appropriate, and maybe even someone from Kent.