And this time he's a banker

Rowan Atkinson has revived Blackadder – as an immoral banker.

He made a surprise reunion with Tony Robinson’s Baldrick last night at the We Are Most Amused benefit show at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

Their sketch closed the night, which was in aid of the Prince’s Trust and attended by Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall.

The premise was that Edmund Blackadder – now a Lord after buying a peerage at the Parliamentary gift shop – was head of the Melchett, Melchett and Darling Bank, which had got itself into £20billion of debt.

He appeared in front of a Select Committee of MPs investigating the financial crisis, whose chairwoman was plated by Miranda Hart. ‘How can I be in crisis?’ he told them. ‘I own half of Kensington.’

Blackadder then called his gardener, Sodov Baldrick, as a witness – and blamed him, and millions like him, for the economic meltdown after running up debts for ‘luxury items such as fuel and food’.

Baldrick suggested he might have a ‘cunning plan’ to extricate Britain from the financial mess, to which Blackadder said it would have to be a plan ‘so brilliant that it would win a place at Oxford University – even if it had a Northern accent’. But it amounted to nothing.

The sketch was penned by Blackadder writer Ben Elton, who also hosted the event, and was its creative director.

It was the first new Blackadder material since 2002, when Sir Osmond Darling-Blackadder, Keeper of Her Majesty’s Lawn Sprinklers, featured in BBC One's Golden Jubilee coverage.

Last night's line-up also featured Jimmy Carr, Joan Rivers, Ed Byrne, Stephen K Amos, Milton Jones, Omid Djalili, Jon Culshaw, Patrick Kielty, Sanjeev Bhaskar and Helen Lederer – with video contributions from Dame Edna Everage.

The Prince’s Trust has helped 700,000 vulnerable people aged 13 to 30 since it was formed in 1976. Gala events to support the cause were launched with a rock gig in 1982, with the first We Are Not Amused comedy show coming in 2008 – featuring John Cleese and MC and Robin Williams’s first UK stage appearance in 25 years.

Published: 29 Nov 2012