Brian Blessed will record audio navigation for Tomtom

The dulcet tones of Brian Blessed will be bellowing out from Tomtom satellite navigation devices from October.

The actor agreed to record voice prompts for in-car navigation after 25,000 Facebook members joined a campaign to choose his booming voice to guide them on their journeys.

Blessed said he was "thrilled to bits" about the campaign - which he admitted he didn’t believe would really take off when it was launched by motorist Richard Gardner.

"Brian Blessed will now be able to 'save every one of us' from getting lost. It's not yet known whether he will shriek ‘Gordon's arrriiiiiived’ when drivers reach their destination,” said Tomtom.

Mr Gardner said that he set up the Facebook campaign to "get Brian Blessed to do a voiceover for my sat-nav" in April 2008 and then promptly forgot about it. In February 2010, he revisited it to find it had 450 members.

Realising there was some demand for the voice he proceeded to spread the word and within weeks the group had attracted several thousand members.

As the petition gathered momentum, he contacted Tomtom which said it would open negotiations with the actor, author and adventurer if the group could pull together 25,000 supporters.

Mr Gardner also approached the bluff Yorkshireman himself, and Blessed agreed to help with a campaign video, saying he would lend his voice for the voiceovers if the target was reached.

The group now has 25,772 members and Tomtom has confirmed that Blessed, who is currently the official "shoutsperson" of the University of York Douglas Adams society, will be available as a downloadable voice for users' sat-nav devices from October.

Users will be able to download the new voice using their Tomtom software. The price has not yet been set but it is expected to cost £7.99.

Tomtom users can also post suggestions for other voices they'd like to hear on the company’s Twitter page.