Don't listen to Baldrick, says Ben Elton

Blackadder will never return, Ben Elton has vowed, scotching the constant rumours of a comeback.

And the show’s co-writer blamed Baldrick actor Sir Tony Robinson for spreading false hope among fans.

‘Every time Tony does an interview he says, "Oh, I think there might be another,",’ Elton said. 

‘But don’t listen to Baldrick on this one, you need to hear it from me or Richard [Curtis] as we write it. There is never going to be another — I can tell you that now.’

Elton also told The Sun that working on the comedy ‘wasn’t a particularly happy experience for everyone’.

‘It was very tense, lots of egos, lots of frustrations but through it all everyone remained friendly and deeply respectful. But it was edgy.’

And he described how it was frustrating how the cast including star Rowan Atkinson would spend ‘three hours discussing whether vole or gerbil is a funnier word, when Richard and I had written vole because we know it’s a funnier word’.

His decision not to return to the hit show was also influenced by the reception to previous one-off specials, which he now describes as ‘semi-half arsed revivals’ which were ‘shit’.

The latest rumours of a Blackadder comeback were sparked in June when the cast were spotted ‘having a great laugh’ at a reunion in London members’ club Soho House.

It came soon after Curtis said he'd loved to see Atkinson return to the role – but this time as a grumpy old man rather than a younger upstart.

But Elton appears to have put the kibosh on those hopes in the new interview, conducted as he prepares to hit the road for his first stand-up tour in 15 years. Click here for the dates.

Published: 6 Sep 2019