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BACKADDER
Iconic British comedy could be set for comeback as a stage show but creator says he has big fear about tarnishing legacy
Plus Ben gives his views on whether 'wokeism' is killing comedy
BLACKADDER co-writer Ben Elton has a cunning plan to bring back the classic historical sitcom.
The comedian believes the TV show, which ran for four series, could return as a play.
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It would follow in the footsteps of Fawlty Towers, which creator John Cleese has recently adapted for a new stage show, and the musical version of Only Fools And Horses.
Ben, co-wrote three series of Blackadder with Four Weddings And A Funeral screenwriter Richard Curtis before penning Shakespeare TV sitcom Upstart Crow — later turned into a West End hit.
Now the alternative comedy icon has revealed he is up for collaborating with his long-term writing partner again on a new storyline for a live version of their series — widely regarded as one of the greatest sitcoms of all time — which ran from 1983 to 1989.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, 64-year-old Ben said: “A Blackadder play, if Richard was keen on it, I’d be interested. Not an adaptation of episodes, it would be an original play.
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“When I wrote Upstart Crow I did three series and three Christmas specials for TV, which was a load of writing, but I’m proud of the fact I then did an original play.
“If we were to do that with Adder it would be the same.”
Asked if he could lure Edmund Blackadder himself, Rowan Atkinson, plus co-stars Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Tony Robinson, he added: “If they want to be in it, that’s up to them.
But with Blackadder, there’s four figures who have a say in it: Me, Richard, Rowan and John Lloyd, who was the producer.
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"So if anything happens, it’s down to us. Who knows if we could ever make it happen.”
‘I believe you can still say what you like’
The comedy featured the titular character and his dim-witted sidekick Baldrick — who always had a “cunning plan” — in different eras, from the Middle Ages to the trenches of World War One.
Where Blackadder cast are now – from star’s shock romance with comedian’s girlfriend to Coronation Street legend
It also spawned three specials, including a 1999 episode marking the millennium, plus a 2020 skit with Stephen Fry reprising his role of Lord Melchett for Comic Relief.
But Ben is extremely wary about potentially harming its TV legacy.
He says: “There were a couple of efforts to do a bit of Adder, with mixed results, and I’m very clear in my mind we do not want to f* up something as loved as Blackadder by going back to it.”
The same goes for The Young Ones, but he has different reasons for resisting a comeback for the cult comedy that provided his first scriptwriting hit.
Its star and Ben’s co-writer Rik Mayall tragically passed away in 2014, aged 56.
Ben explains: “It’s a legacy Rik has a large part of and it’s not something I could do without him.
“Plus I don’t think it could work as a musical or play.”
Ben is hitting the road this autumn for a stand-up tour.
It is his first since 2019, when he returned to the craft after a 15-year exile, and 12 months after winning a Bafta for his one-off revival of Channel 4’s Friday Night Live.
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The timing of his Authentic Stupidity show, which includes more than 60 dates, starting in York on September 1, comes at a time when comedians such as Ricky Gervais have faced a backlash for telling jokes which upset certain groups.
Not an adaptation of episodes, it would be an original play
Ben Elton
But Ben does not believe “wokeism” is killing comedy.
He says: “I believe you can still say what you like.
“A lot of people think I was the start of woke because I was aggressively against sexist and racist comedy in the Eighties.
“Good comedy is based on truth, it’s based on what we’re like, how we feel, our embarrassments.
“Bad comedy relies on a large group laughing at a small group.”
On Gervais’s claims his detractors are trying to silence him, Ben adds: “I saw Ricky’s recent special on Netflix and it’s just not true.
“He hasn’t been cancelled.
“Nobody has told him he can’t make a joke about disabled people.
“If he just did the joke it probably wouldn’t get a laugh, but having first said he wasn’t allowed to say this, he gets a laugh.
“But of course he’s allowed to say it — he’s on f*ing Netflix.
“I admire a lot about Ricky Gervais but I do not subscribe that comedy has been ruined by wokeness.
“There are examples when a small vociferous group have said, ‘I object to that joke therefore you have no right to say it’, and that is wrong.
‘Me and Rik in a van felt like the Rolling Stones’
“You do not have a right not to be offended, and if you object to something you can leave or ask for your money back, but I don’t think you should be closing the show down.
“Comedy is in great shape.
“There’s an awful lot of comics around — and I’m one of them.”
That said, Ben does think studio-based sitcoms like The Young Ones and Blackadder should be thriving, not consigned to a bygone era.
He says: “For some reason that art form fell into critical disrepute.
“There was some horrible snobbery that developed for any situation sitcom, which was lampooned in Extras where he (Gervais) was in a show and he had a catchphrase.”
Ben says the traditional sitcom, filmed in front of a live audience, “spreads nothing but happiness and goodwill”.
He added: “Now we’re being invited to adore the work of the single camera artists without laughter and filmed on location.
“The idea that one bloke holding a camera is intrinsically more artistic than a group of people forming a community to make a piece of comedy just doesn’t cut it for me.”
I admire a lot about Ricky Gervais but I do not subscribe that comedy has been ruined by wokeness
Ben Elton
After spending four months writing material for his show, Ben has been fine-tuning his act by performing intimate work-in-progress gigs in the UK and Australia, where he lives for half the year with his Aussie wife Sophie Gare.
He admits being on the road brings back fun memories of touring with Rik shortly after the success of The Young Ones in the early Eighties.
The pair nicknamed themselves “The Lager Drinkers From Hell” — an ironic gag based on the fact neither of them took drugs, unlike many of their contemporaries.
Ben recalls: “We thought we were very rock ’n’ roll, drinking p***-weak lager.
“It was one of my favourite professional experiences, me and Rik in a van, we felt like we were Queen or the Rolling Stones.
“People would look at us, girls would come to us.
“We’d drink six pints of lager after a gig and find a curry house.
“But we only did three weeks and we were young.
“I couldn’t possibly do that now.
“When I’m on the road I’ve got to be quite disciplined.”
Ben’s body shape has barely changed from his Eighties heyday — and in no small part that could be down to his obsession with broccoli.
He adds: “I’ll buy a broccoli tree and I’ll microwave it for three minutes then I’ll eat it.
“That’s what I do on tour, I look after my health very functionally.
“I’ll have a bag of salad and eat it like a horse.
“It’s hard work managing your body.
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“I exercise every day because I like to drink and eat Yorkshire puddings.”
- From more information on Ben’s Authentic Stupidity tour and to buy tickets, visit benelton.live.
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Should Baldrick get a reboot?
YES
Says Colin Robertson, Head of Features
BRITAIN needs a new Blackadder like Baldrick needs a brain cell.
The state of sitcoms in this country is literally beyond a joke.
Our once world-beating comedies have been hung, drawn and quartered by timid commissioners or elbowed aside by expletive-driven you-can’t-cancel-me stand-ups and their “offensive” gags.
Look at the No1 “comedy” in town right now – a painfully dark tale of male rape, drug benders, mental breakdowns and a terrifying stalking ordeal. Baby Reindeer makes Blackadder look like Bambi.
This race to the bottom may benefit Netflix’s coffers but will this zeitgeisty Zzzz stand the test of time like Blackadder has?
The historical romp is a masterclass in humour, pathos and, yes, tragedy. And it was consistently good.
Why should we think, with the same writers – neither short of skill or confidence – that would change?
If anything, Sir Edmund’s cynicism is more relevant than ever.
Look at the state of public life - tractor porn, 3am “bad people”, Liz Truss.
There is more inspiration for material now than Blackadder 2024 could ever use.
NO
Says Rod McPhee, TV Editor
JUST imagine presenting the wickedly brilliant Blackadder to Millennials . . . it would get rejected quicker than Boris Becker’s application for a credit card.
Of course, I totally understand why Ben Elton would want to revisit this rich vein of comedy.
But you can bet the joy vampires would briefly stop making TikToks and kale cronuts before descending to suck the lifeblood out of it.
We’d be left with a desiccated poor cousin of the original series, which has gone down as some of the funniest bits of writing that ever graced our screens.
Blackadder was devilish telly but – and this is a crucial point – it never set out to be nasty to anyone.
Take the line where anti-hero Edmund refers to an entirely fictional character in Blackadder The Third: “He’s madder than Mad Jack McMad, winner of last year’s Mr Madman competition.”
Now, is that really so bad? The answer would probably be yes, according to lily-livered snowflakes who’d insist on an immediate woke-washing of the script.
In a world where episodes of Terry And June now come with trigger warnings, they’d need to watch uncensored Blackadder with a tub of Valium and a defibrillator on standby.