0:00:02 > 0:00:04Edmund, have you someone special in your life?
0:00:04 > 0:00:07- Well, yes, as a matter of fact, I do.- Who?
0:00:07 > 0:00:08Me.
0:00:10 > 0:00:14No, I mean, someone you love and cherish and want to keep safe
0:00:14 > 0:00:16from all the horror and the hurt.
0:00:16 > 0:00:19Mmm... Still me really.
0:00:19 > 0:00:21I was travelling on a plane
0:00:21 > 0:00:25several years ago and an episode of The Blackadder
0:00:25 > 0:00:28came up on the entertainment channels,
0:00:28 > 0:00:32and it was the nurse episode from the fourth series with Miranda,
0:00:32 > 0:00:37and, as far as I'm aware, it was an episode that I had never, ever seen.
0:00:37 > 0:00:41- Cigarette?- No, thank you. I only smoke cigarettes after making love.
0:00:41 > 0:00:45So, back in England, I'm a 20-a-day man.
0:00:47 > 0:00:52I'm not a great laugher, sadly, but I might have sniggered at it,
0:00:52 > 0:00:54which was my way of saying, "That was very funny."
0:00:58 > 0:01:03Remarkably, Blackadder first slithered on to our screens all of 25 years ago.
0:01:04 > 0:01:09I'd mud-wrestle my own mother for a ton of cash, an amusing clock and a sack of French porn.
0:01:09 > 0:01:13So tonight, we celebrate the series that sired a comic generation
0:01:13 > 0:01:17and a quantum of quotable lines.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20- You've really worked out your banter, haven't you?- No, not really.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24This is a different thing. It's spontaneous and it's called wit.
0:01:24 > 0:01:28We travel by train, plane, boat and automobile to track down
0:01:28 > 0:01:31the original cast and creators who'd gone on to conquer
0:01:31 > 0:01:33all corners of the known universe.
0:01:33 > 0:01:35Baaah!
0:01:35 > 0:01:39If you should falter, remember that Captain Darling and I are behind you.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42About 35 miles behind you.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45We travel from Northumberland...
0:01:45 > 0:01:49When we filmed here, it was the first time I'd ever met a camp Geordie.
0:01:49 > 0:01:51..to northern France.
0:01:51 > 0:01:54If ever there was a subject requiring of satire,
0:01:54 > 0:01:57it's people blindly going to war.
0:01:57 > 0:01:59From Hollywood...
0:01:59 > 0:02:01There were some rather large egos.
0:02:01 > 0:02:06I happen to be perfect, but everyone else is just a sort of big-headed twerp.
0:02:06 > 0:02:08..to the Horn of Africa.
0:02:08 > 0:02:12After Blackadder, I sort of semi-retired really, and I bought
0:02:12 > 0:02:14this small African town, Potendwe,
0:02:14 > 0:02:18and the land you can see there, up until the hills, that's all mine.
0:02:18 > 0:02:22Behind is Christopher Biggins', except the hill further on.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25That's the S Club 7 and Boyzone accountant.
0:02:31 > 0:02:34Blackadder, to remind those from another planet,
0:02:34 > 0:02:37followed the exploits of the devilishly cunning Edmund Blackadder
0:02:37 > 0:02:41and his trustily stupid sidekick, Baldrick.
0:02:41 > 0:02:43Baldrick, believe me.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47Eternity and the company of Beelzebub and all his hellish instruments
0:02:47 > 0:02:53of death will be a picnic compared to five minutes with me and this pencil.
0:02:55 > 0:02:58The pair journey from the mayhem of the Middle Ages...
0:02:58 > 0:03:02through the terrible Tudors...
0:03:02 > 0:03:04to the gorgeous Georgians...
0:03:04 > 0:03:05Hurrah!
0:03:06 > 0:03:09..ending up in the First World War.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11MACHINE GUN FIRE
0:03:14 > 0:03:18As an historical sitcom, it's timeless and keeps on twisting
0:03:18 > 0:03:21and turning its way into the public's affections like...
0:03:21 > 0:03:24Well, a twisty, turney thing.
0:03:24 > 0:03:25And your chosen subject.
0:03:25 > 0:03:28- Blackadder.- Blackadder the TV series.
0:03:28 > 0:03:29Blackadder Goes Forth.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32It's even the backbone of school history lessons.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35Now who's heard of Blackadder?
0:03:35 > 0:03:37I want to be remembered when I'm dead.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40I want books written about me, I want songs sung about me,
0:03:40 > 0:03:44and then, hundreds of years from now, I want episodes from my life
0:03:44 > 0:03:47to be played out weekly at half-past nine
0:03:47 > 0:03:50by some great heroic actor of the age.
0:03:50 > 0:03:55Now, for the first time, Blackadder himself, Rowan Atkinson,
0:03:55 > 0:03:59and producer John Lloyd are re-tracing the story of the show,
0:03:59 > 0:04:03a story that began at Oxford University, where a young Atkinson
0:04:03 > 0:04:07first met the show's fellow creator, Richard Curtis.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14I did nothing of a theatrical nature
0:04:14 > 0:04:17in my first term at Oxford.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20You know, I was just relishing the whole,
0:04:20 > 0:04:24you know, slightly olde-worlde, you know, privileged nature of the place,
0:04:24 > 0:04:28and going to endless organ recitals. I was a great lover of the organ.
0:04:28 > 0:04:34I met Rowan in a small room - a don's room in some college
0:04:34 > 0:04:37with people who'd answered an advertisement
0:04:37 > 0:04:41for The Etceteras, which was the Oxford sketch-writing group.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45He described me as being like a cushion,
0:04:45 > 0:04:49like a cushion, because I sat on the chair and said nothing.
0:04:49 > 0:04:51I thought he was a stuffed toy.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54I mean, he didn't say anything for the first three meetings,
0:04:54 > 0:04:56just a curiously shaped object in the corner.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00And just when we were trying to decide what the material should be,
0:05:00 > 0:05:02and we'd all been handing in sketches for months,
0:05:02 > 0:05:08Rowan actually stood up and did two absolutely astonishing sketches.
0:05:09 > 0:05:11Endsleigh?
0:05:16 > 0:05:17Babcock?
0:05:19 > 0:05:21Bland?
0:05:23 > 0:05:26I was an enormous admirer of Rowan Atkinson.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29I'd seen him in Edinburgh where he'd been a cult performer
0:05:29 > 0:05:30from his earliest performances.
0:05:30 > 0:05:32Nancy-Boy Potter?
0:05:38 > 0:05:39Nibble?
0:05:42 > 0:05:44'And I don't remember ever having laughed so much.'
0:05:44 > 0:05:46I genuinely weed myself at one point.
0:05:46 > 0:05:48Just a small amount, you'll be pleased to know,
0:05:48 > 0:05:51but I did wee myself at Rowan's schoolmaster monologue.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55Nibble! Leave Orifice alone.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05Not The Nine O'Clock News, the show that brought alternative comedy
0:06:05 > 0:06:09to TV, was the next step for Rowan and Richard.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14It was while working together on the ground-breaking sketch show
0:06:14 > 0:06:18that the idea for Blackadder started to take shape,
0:06:18 > 0:06:22and they made a pilot that's never been seen till now.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33- Then there's the Morris dancers. - We're not having them.
0:06:33 > 0:06:37Morris dancing is the most despicable entertainment
0:06:37 > 0:06:38I've ever seen.
0:06:38 > 0:06:41A load of effeminate blacksmiths waving bits of white cloth
0:06:41 > 0:06:42they've been wiping their noses on.
0:06:43 > 0:06:45- It's a positive health hazard. - KNOCK ON DOOR
0:06:45 > 0:06:46Go away!
0:06:46 > 0:06:51The thing we really didn't want to do was anything that could,
0:06:51 > 0:06:55in any sense, be compared to Fawlty Towers.
0:06:55 > 0:06:57That was...that was almost the starting point.
0:06:57 > 0:07:01There's one thing you mustn't be, Fawlty Towers, or anything like it.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04And of course the great inspiration on the other side of it,
0:07:04 > 0:07:08the thing we DID want it to be quite like was Errol Flynn's Robin Hood.
0:07:14 > 0:07:16The pilot turned into the first series,
0:07:16 > 0:07:18featuring a Blackadder very different
0:07:18 > 0:07:21from the brilliant bounder we came to know.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24What a little turd!
0:07:25 > 0:07:29It was a grand affair, set in the Middle Ages
0:07:29 > 0:07:32at the stately Alnwick Castle in Northumberland.
0:07:36 > 0:07:39Well, so, 25 years ago,
0:07:39 > 0:07:43we found ourselves coming to this town for the first time.
0:07:43 > 0:07:46Oh, look, there's a bit of castle, there's the sort of gate.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49I'm sure, when we came on the recce, we thought,
0:07:49 > 0:07:51oh, no, this is really disappointing.
0:07:51 > 0:07:53- Is that it? Just that gate.- Yeah.
0:07:53 > 0:07:55Oh, dear, that's a bit squat.
0:07:56 > 0:07:58Oh, my God, there it is.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01- Now this does ring bells.- Yes.
0:08:01 > 0:08:06Although I have to say the whole feel is an awful lot more spruce.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09It's a lot... It's very trim, isn't it? It wasn't like this.
0:08:09 > 0:08:11I mean, look at that grass.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30You know, there are lots of castles in, you know, Kent or somewhere
0:08:30 > 0:08:33which just don't have this sense of openness and bleakness
0:08:33 > 0:08:37which Alnwick has, particularly in the snow in February.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40All I can remember is thinking, "Look at all this stuff..."
0:08:40 > 0:08:42This place would have been full of people,
0:08:42 > 0:08:44as far as the eye could see. Horses and dogs...
0:08:47 > 0:08:52This is where the first shot we shot begins, as you say goodbye to Baldrick.
0:08:54 > 0:08:58And I remember the fantastic sound of hooves on these stones,
0:08:58 > 0:09:01on this stone inside this tunnel.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05And I remember, when you were on that horse that first day,
0:09:05 > 0:09:08you leaned down from the horse and there was a little dewdrop
0:09:08 > 0:09:11hanging off the end of your nose because it was so cold.
0:09:11 > 0:09:13- Oh, yes, yes.- The raindrop there,
0:09:13 > 0:09:14and then you said,
0:09:14 > 0:09:17"What voice shall I use?"
0:09:17 > 0:09:22Help! Help! We haven't thought about this at all.
0:09:22 > 0:09:23Get out of my way!
0:09:23 > 0:09:26Are you going on a journey, my lord?
0:09:26 > 0:09:29No, I thought I'd stand here all day and talk to you.
0:09:29 > 0:09:31Well, you'll be needing someone to tend your horse then.
0:09:31 > 0:09:33What is your profession?
0:09:33 > 0:09:37One two three, one two three!
0:09:37 > 0:09:41My God, a retired Morris dancer.
0:09:41 > 0:09:46I found this the other day. I actually kept a diary of a few days.
0:09:46 > 0:09:48"12th February 1983.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51"Filming has been fantastically slow and tedious.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53"The snow comes down on the words 'turn over'
0:09:53 > 0:09:58"as if summoned by an incantation and a remarkable variety of textures.
0:09:58 > 0:10:00"Often it's as big as gravel stones,
0:10:00 > 0:10:03"and the flagstones look like a working model of Brownian motion."
0:10:03 > 0:10:05Oh, that's rather...
0:10:05 > 0:10:06Some lyrical writing!
0:10:06 > 0:10:09- Very well written.- Thank you so much!
0:10:09 > 0:10:11Rather better than the series!
0:10:14 > 0:10:17"On Monday, Tuesday, worried dreadfully that
0:10:17 > 0:10:20"Rowan's character was a disaster, but it seems to be gelling well."
0:10:20 > 0:10:22Oh, oh. It's gelled.
0:10:22 > 0:10:24"Tim McInnerny is brilliant, as is Tony Robinson,
0:10:24 > 0:10:30"quite splendid juices being squeezed from a rather shrivelled selection of lemons."
0:10:30 > 0:10:33What comes in my head first about series one
0:10:33 > 0:10:35is freezing to death in Alnwick Castle.
0:10:35 > 0:10:39I can remember on the very first day, Tim McInnerny and I
0:10:39 > 0:10:40started to get the giggles
0:10:40 > 0:10:42because in the previous hour,
0:10:42 > 0:10:45we'd been subjected to five different kinds of snow.
0:10:45 > 0:10:49It was everything the north-east had to throw at us.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52"The hailstones are as fat as Mint Imperials
0:10:52 > 0:10:55"and it's so cold, we have to wear our long-johns in the bath."
0:10:55 > 0:10:59Despite its quite graphic description of the difficult conditions,
0:10:59 > 0:11:01actually, the tone is quite optimistic.
0:11:01 > 0:11:05I mean, you don't sound like a man about to jump off a cliff.
0:11:07 > 0:11:09What used to be strong about British comedy
0:11:09 > 0:11:11was that people went from writing sketches
0:11:11 > 0:11:16to writing a sitcom, and their sketchcraft was carried through.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19- Let's get down to business, shall we?- Business, my lord?
0:11:19 > 0:11:24Yes. Baldrick has been looking at some of the ways we can actually make a bit of money at this job.
0:11:24 > 0:11:28Some of the things that are best in series one are really sketches.
0:11:28 > 0:11:32There appear to be four major profit areas.
0:11:32 > 0:11:36Curses, pardons, relics and selling the sexual favours of the nuns.
0:11:36 > 0:11:38Selling the sexual favours of nuns?
0:11:38 > 0:11:40- Yeah.- You mean some people actually pay for them?
0:11:40 > 0:11:43Well, foreign businessmen, other nuns...
0:11:43 > 0:11:44'We weren't an ensemble at that time'
0:11:44 > 0:11:47and, in a way, for me, I think,
0:11:47 > 0:11:49that scene was the first time that it really gelled.
0:11:49 > 0:11:54Moving on to relics, we've got shrouds from Turin.
0:11:55 > 0:11:58Wine from the wedding at Cana.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00Splinters from the Cross.
0:12:00 > 0:12:06And of course, there's all the stuff made by Jesus in his days in the carpentry shop.
0:12:06 > 0:12:10We've got pipe racks, coffee-tables, coat stands.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14Waterproof sandals. That's what I remember.
0:12:14 > 0:12:19This was my one good scene in the first Blackadder series.
0:12:19 > 0:12:20'I was so pleased I got this.'
0:12:20 > 0:12:22I haven't finished this one yet.
0:12:22 > 0:12:23It's so verbal, isn't it?
0:12:23 > 0:12:26Nice props, I'm not knocking them at all,
0:12:26 > 0:12:30but just the three of us being serious and pulling faces.
0:12:30 > 0:12:31'Absolutely.'
0:12:31 > 0:12:34I have here a true relic.
0:12:34 > 0:12:36What is it?
0:12:36 > 0:12:41It is a bone from the finger of our Lord.
0:12:41 > 0:12:43It cost me 31 pieces of silver.
0:12:45 > 0:12:47'Baldrick, you stand amazed.'
0:12:47 > 0:12:50I am. I thought they only came in boxes of 10.
0:12:50 > 0:12:52'Look at you!'
0:12:52 > 0:12:54You should be shot for that kind of acting.
0:12:54 > 0:12:56No, I could have been much worse.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59I remember Blackadder being lots of fun.
0:12:59 > 0:13:03In the end, you are about as much use to me as a hole in the head -
0:13:03 > 0:13:05an affliction with which you must be familiar,
0:13:05 > 0:13:08having never actually had a brain.
0:13:08 > 0:13:09Hello!
0:13:09 > 0:13:11The Spanish Infanta didn't know she was ugly.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14That's the sad thing, really, about it.
0:13:14 > 0:13:18Here I am, awaiting the arrival of the most beautiful, ravishing...
0:13:18 > 0:13:19Hello!
0:13:19 > 0:13:22Leave me alone, will you? I'm trying to talk to someone.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25..while you're wittering away like a pox-ridden moorhen.
0:13:25 > 0:13:26SHE SPEAKS SPANISH
0:13:26 > 0:13:32She loved Blackadder, and she was electrified, sexually, by him.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39SHE SPEAKS SPANISH
0:13:39 > 0:13:41I've waited for this moment all of my life
0:13:41 > 0:13:44SHE SPEAKS SPANISH
0:13:45 > 0:13:48Your nose is smaller than I expected.
0:13:48 > 0:13:50For him, it was tough.
0:13:50 > 0:13:54He felt a huge responsibility,
0:13:54 > 0:13:55kind of carrying the show.
0:13:59 > 0:14:02It's extraordinary, the physical difference with Rowan,
0:14:02 > 0:14:04- between the first and second series.- Yeah.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07Do your funny walk then, Adder.
0:14:07 > 0:14:10- Moi?- Do the funny Blackadder walk.
0:14:10 > 0:14:13I haven't got a funny Blackadder walk.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16You did one like that!
0:14:16 > 0:14:17'Or something weaselly.'
0:14:20 > 0:14:22What seems odd now is that
0:14:22 > 0:14:28Tony was the streetwise, smart guy, and Rowan was an idiot.
0:14:35 > 0:14:40Incredibly dysfunctional, almost twisted person.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43A bit like what Mr Bean became.
0:14:45 > 0:14:49Rowan wasn't entirely relaxed in the first series,
0:14:49 > 0:14:51as were none of us, because we weren't quite sure...
0:14:51 > 0:14:53not quite sure what we were doing.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56Rowan's character wasn't properly sorted out.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59Oh, my God, this is impossible! I can't do this.
0:14:59 > 0:15:04We tried to do too much with Rowan's character in series one,
0:15:04 > 0:15:10cos he was sort of aggressive and stupid and posh and cowardly and brave,
0:15:10 > 0:15:15so it was a sort of agglomeration of quite a few funny things
0:15:15 > 0:15:17that we knew Rowan could do.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20But it's interesting how, you know,
0:15:20 > 0:15:26an amusing costume and a daft haircut an amusing character doth not make!
0:15:27 > 0:15:32I sat there wanting to laugh and unable to, a lot of the time.
0:15:32 > 0:15:36I did laugh quite a lot, but I hope desperately that I shall laugh more the next week.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39What exactly is funny about this?
0:15:39 > 0:15:41What is funny about having that character?
0:15:41 > 0:15:47Farewell, sweet England, and noble castle!
0:15:47 > 0:15:52First watering place in the desert of my life.
0:15:52 > 0:15:58Farewell, gentle giblets and sweet crenellations,
0:15:58 > 0:16:02and farewell, dearest gutters!
0:16:02 > 0:16:04I remember that famous comment of yours.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07It looks like a million dollars but it cost a million pounds.
0:16:07 > 0:16:13I suppose a good thing about the modern BBC is that they would never have allowed us to do this.
0:16:13 > 0:16:15You know, to do what we did.
0:16:15 > 0:16:18I mean, you know, they would never, you know, have just let
0:16:18 > 0:16:22a few young, you know, creative people come up to Alnwick and shoot.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25Well, no, they wouldn't, but then, on the other hand,
0:16:25 > 0:16:27we were very proud of it at the time we did it.
0:16:27 > 0:16:30The basic fault is the script, because Rowan Atkinson
0:16:30 > 0:16:33and this chap who he writes with, have written an awful lot,
0:16:33 > 0:16:35and it seems that six episodes are too much for them.
0:16:35 > 0:16:39There are a lot of half-employed script writers who could have been brought in to good effect.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46There was in fact a slightly more than half-employed scriptwriter knocking about.
0:16:46 > 0:16:50Ben Elton was behind the cult series of The Young Ones
0:16:50 > 0:16:53and was brought in to hone the writing of the second series.
0:16:53 > 0:16:55Is the sitcom written?
0:16:55 > 0:16:57- I mean, not the sitcom, the drama, the comedy.- Well...
0:16:57 > 0:17:02- That sounds like a good idea. - I'm working on a pilot, I'm working on a pilot episode.
0:17:02 > 0:17:05I've now had a screening council, and the end is hard to get right,
0:17:05 > 0:17:08and I don't know how to get the special effects right.
0:17:08 > 0:17:14I think we met at a script meeting for what was going to turn into Spitting Image,
0:17:14 > 0:17:18and I was startled to find a huge fan of Blackadder I.
0:17:18 > 0:17:22These were before the days of ratings. That was always the shock.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26I mean, I still don't know how many people watched any episode of Blackadder.
0:17:26 > 0:17:28And I remember on BBC...
0:17:28 > 0:17:31Well, I used to wander round Shepherd's Bush
0:17:31 > 0:17:33looking at people's windows,
0:17:33 > 0:17:37particularly people with basement flats, to see whether or not anyone was watching.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40You were looking for any nude girls who'd left their windows...
0:17:40 > 0:17:43No, I was looking to see if anyone was watching Blackadder.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46One didn't know whether it would be a success.
0:17:46 > 0:17:50I wondered who that kind of ginger perv was whilst Kate and I were singing the theme tune.
0:17:50 > 0:17:53'He lived rough.
0:17:53 > 0:17:55'He talked rough.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59'He wore a ruff.
0:17:59 > 0:18:01'Blackadder II.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04'Coming soon.
0:18:04 > 0:18:05'Ish.'
0:18:05 > 0:18:09They would sit in different rooms, probably even in different houses,
0:18:09 > 0:18:11having divided the series into two halves,
0:18:11 > 0:18:14and they'd write three episodes each and then swap over.
0:18:14 > 0:18:16It always led you somewhere else. OK, execution,
0:18:16 > 0:18:19head cut off, how's he gonna get out of it?
0:18:19 > 0:18:21Stick the head down the back of his tights. Obvious!
0:18:21 > 0:18:24'But maybe not obvious to the person who started with the beheading.'
0:18:24 > 0:18:26Oh, Percy!
0:18:26 > 0:18:29I've got the body, my lord, and I see you've got the head.
0:18:29 > 0:18:30Yes, but it's no good, Percy.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33No-one's ever gonna believe we've just cut it off. It's gone green!
0:18:33 > 0:18:38Ben and I never wrote together, mainly because we had better things to do with our time.
0:18:38 > 0:18:40We were both completely obsessed by pop music.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43Madness, very great era for Madonna.
0:18:43 > 0:18:47I seem to remember endless meetings when all we talked about
0:18:47 > 0:18:49was which was our favourite track on True Blue.
0:18:49 > 0:18:54And I remember us going to see Kylie Minogue, and we were literally the only two men there.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57It was very early on in her career, and the entire audience was made up
0:18:57 > 0:19:01of 30-year-old women who watched Neighbours and their daughters,
0:19:01 > 0:19:05who also watched Neighbours, and were, by the time Kylie came on, fast asleep.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11However enjoyable the writing process and however well the scripts were shaping up,
0:19:11 > 0:19:14Ben and Richard were less than lucky, lucky, lucky
0:19:14 > 0:19:18to get an ominous letter from the BBC's head of comedy.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21Michael Grade had come in, and he looked at the ratings,
0:19:21 > 0:19:22and it doesn't stack up.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25It's not good enough for the little ratings they're getting,
0:19:25 > 0:19:28and it doesn't get enough good reviews. It's finished.
0:19:28 > 0:19:30And I remember the sentence very clearly.
0:19:30 > 0:19:32"For this season, and realistically that means for good.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34"Very sorry about this. It's over."
0:19:34 > 0:19:36At which point,
0:19:36 > 0:19:40a combination really of John Lloyd, Rowan Atkinson and Rowan's agent,
0:19:40 > 0:19:43Richard Armitage, at the time, went into overdrive.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46There was this mad weekend where Richard, Ben and I were sitting
0:19:46 > 0:19:50at three typewriters, desperately cutting up out all the film,
0:19:50 > 0:19:52taking up anything that had a silly costume,
0:19:52 > 0:19:53that was at all expensive,
0:19:53 > 0:19:57and we went back, I went back two days later,
0:19:57 > 0:20:00the beginning of the next week, to John Davies, and said, "Here you are.
0:20:00 > 0:20:04"These are the cheapest sitcoms on telly, and please may we have another chance?"
0:20:04 > 0:20:08The key element to the success of the second series though,
0:20:08 > 0:20:11would be the transformation of Blackadder himself
0:20:11 > 0:20:17from nerdy medieval prince of series one to suave Elizabethan courtier.
0:20:17 > 0:20:22The very first lesson was to pick Rowan's character,
0:20:22 > 0:20:25to get it exactly clear what it was he was gonna do,
0:20:25 > 0:20:30and, as Ben says, there was a whole imperious, sarcastic,
0:20:30 > 0:20:34posh side of Rowan which we both loved,
0:20:34 > 0:20:37which we knew how to write, which came very naturally to both of us.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40Tell me, young crone. Is this Putney?
0:20:40 > 0:20:43Indeed. That it be.
0:20:43 > 0:20:45Yes it is, not "that it be".
0:20:47 > 0:20:51You don't have to talk in that stupid voice to me, I'm not a tourist.
0:20:51 > 0:20:55It's lovely to have this sort of pecking order, and to place
0:20:55 > 0:20:58Blackadder somewhere in it, somewhere in the middle,
0:20:58 > 0:21:00so he can be very cynical about those above him,
0:21:00 > 0:21:02and very cynical about those below him.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06Oh, very good shot, my lord.
0:21:06 > 0:21:07Thank you, Baldrick.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12- Sorry I'm late. - No, don't bother apologising.
0:21:12 > 0:21:13I'm sorry you're alive.
0:21:14 > 0:21:16'There's a thing about comedy in Britain.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19'Britain's a terrible place for class, as everybody knows.'
0:21:19 > 0:21:21You look at a... I don't know, a sitcom.
0:21:21 > 0:21:26The moment the lights go up, as it were, and you think, "Oh, God, it's upper-class people.
0:21:26 > 0:21:31"I don't care about them." Or, "Oh, God, it's middle-class dentists, I don't care about them."
0:21:31 > 0:21:34Or, "Oh, God, it's wacky Scousers, I don't care about them."
0:21:34 > 0:21:35You know what I mean?
0:21:35 > 0:21:40Everybody seems to hate everybody else in Britain and thinks up a reason not to care about them.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43And one of the marvellous things about Blackadder II
0:21:43 > 0:21:47and the subsequent Blackadders is that they are set in a very rigidly hierarchical world.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51My Lord. The Queen does demand your urgent presence on pain of death.
0:21:51 > 0:21:56Oh, damn. The path of my life is strewn with cowpats
0:21:56 > 0:21:58from the devil's own satanic herd.
0:21:58 > 0:21:59You've got real threat.
0:21:59 > 0:22:04Blackadder is going to have his head chopped off at any moment. It's perfectly possible.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07This mad, capricious queen really could say, "This time I mean it."
0:22:07 > 0:22:11Ooh, Edmund. I do love it when you get cross.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15Sometimes I think about having you executed just to see the expression on your face.
0:22:17 > 0:22:19It's within court,
0:22:19 > 0:22:24which is a very small, bejewelled world, you know.
0:22:24 > 0:22:26There are these little people in there,
0:22:26 > 0:22:31who think they rule the world, and of course it was only me that ruled the world.
0:22:32 > 0:22:34- What is it?- A stick.
0:22:36 > 0:22:38Is it a stick, Lord Blackadder?
0:22:38 > 0:22:41Yes, Ma'am. But it is a very special stick,
0:22:41 > 0:22:45because, when you throw it away, it comes back!
0:22:46 > 0:22:48Oh, well!
0:22:48 > 0:22:50That's no good, is it?
0:22:50 > 0:22:54Because, when I throw things away, I don't want them to come back!
0:22:54 > 0:22:56You! Get rid of it.
0:22:56 > 0:23:00'Richard and Ben had created this idea, which was the Queen
0:23:00 > 0:23:02'was like, a little girl with an enormous amount of power.'
0:23:02 > 0:23:05I think we interviewed 40 actresses,
0:23:05 > 0:23:08and we really were beginning to get desperate.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11It was probably written in a pretty two-dimensional way,
0:23:11 > 0:23:13and they all just were playing girls from Bedales.
0:23:13 > 0:23:18The 41st person who walked in, when we were really about to shoot ourselves,
0:23:18 > 0:23:21was this blonde who clearly hadn't washed her hair.
0:23:21 > 0:23:25Apparently I walked in like something that had been pulled through a hedge backwards.
0:23:25 > 0:23:27Spot the difference!
0:23:27 > 0:23:33Here was this astonishing actress who did nothing like we expected it.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36Every line was odd, peculiar, weirdly pitched.
0:23:36 > 0:23:41I may have the body of a weak and feeble woman.
0:23:41 > 0:23:43But I have the heart and stomach...
0:23:44 > 0:23:47..of a concrete elephant.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50- Prove it!- Certainly will.
0:23:50 > 0:23:54First I'm going to have a little drinkie,
0:23:54 > 0:23:58and then I'm going to execute the whole bally lot of you.
0:24:03 > 0:24:05Unbeknown to most people, and Miranda,
0:24:05 > 0:24:09in a secret corner of the BBC, where few dare to tread,
0:24:09 > 0:24:13there's the forgotten costumes department.
0:24:13 > 0:24:15In the bowels of the building.
0:24:20 > 0:24:23What has it got in its pockets?
0:24:25 > 0:24:28Oh! God!
0:24:30 > 0:24:33This looks rather familiar.
0:24:33 > 0:24:35Ah!
0:24:35 > 0:24:39I hope several hundred moths don't fly out.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42Look at this!
0:24:42 > 0:24:45Look at the... And even the work in the...
0:24:45 > 0:24:47in the cuffs.
0:24:47 > 0:24:54All these little individual pearls, most of them still there, just bobbling away.
0:24:55 > 0:24:56I remember the weight.
0:24:58 > 0:25:03Bloody hell! Yes, that dear friend, as I remembered. And not only...
0:25:03 > 0:25:10Not only the dress, not only the wig, not only the ruff, but also a pomander
0:25:10 > 0:25:14and a mirror attached to my dress.
0:25:14 > 0:25:16Do I look absolutely divine and regal
0:25:16 > 0:25:20and yet and at the same time very pretty and rather accessible?
0:25:21 > 0:25:24You are every jolly jacktar's dream, Majesty.
0:25:24 > 0:25:26I thought as much.
0:25:26 > 0:25:28Had we not lucked out in getting Miranda,
0:25:28 > 0:25:31- probably Blackadder II wouldn't have worked.- Yeah!
0:25:32 > 0:25:34I think it's held together rather well.
0:25:36 > 0:25:38Rather better than I have!
0:25:40 > 0:25:44Even though in theory I had the title role of the programme,
0:25:44 > 0:25:47because there was Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie and Tony Robinson,
0:25:47 > 0:25:50there was this wonderful feeling of being able to delegate,
0:25:50 > 0:25:53of almost being the man in the middle, who was able to say,
0:25:53 > 0:25:57"Ladies and gentlemen, Tony Robinson will now be extremely amusing!"
0:26:00 > 0:26:05Baldrick, I would advise you to make the explanation you're about to give phenomenally good.
0:26:06 > 0:26:10- You said, "Get the door." - Not good enough, you're fired.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13But, my lord, I've been in your family since 1532.
0:26:13 > 0:26:15So has syphilis. Now get out.
0:26:15 > 0:26:17Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Stephen Fry!
0:26:17 > 0:26:19Now, Melchy, you really are a beginner.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22You're not even wearing a pair of comedy breasts.
0:26:22 > 0:26:23Au contraire, Blackadder.
0:26:30 > 0:26:32You silly, silly people!
0:26:32 > 0:26:35To have come all the way to Ndigwe
0:26:35 > 0:26:38with a pair of comedy breasts.
0:26:38 > 0:26:40Well, down the hatch.
0:26:40 > 0:26:41CHEERING
0:26:44 > 0:26:46They still smell the same.
0:26:46 > 0:26:48They're fantastic.
0:26:48 > 0:26:51I always felt sorry for those who came into the Blackadder to,
0:26:51 > 0:26:54you know, do their roles, you know, do their cameos.
0:26:58 > 0:26:59It's me!
0:27:01 > 0:27:04Some people managed it better than others.
0:27:04 > 0:27:07Flash by name, flash by nature!
0:27:07 > 0:27:09Come here, camera.
0:27:09 > 0:27:12Come here. Come here.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15Hello, girls. It's Rik.
0:27:15 > 0:27:16Happy Christmas.
0:27:16 > 0:27:17Wahay!
0:27:17 > 0:27:19- Hooray!- Where have you been?
0:27:19 > 0:27:21Where haven't I been? Woof!
0:27:23 > 0:27:25I was surprised when they asked me.
0:27:25 > 0:27:27Very honouring they should ask me.
0:27:27 > 0:27:29I said, "All right, so long as I get more laughs than Rowan."
0:27:29 > 0:27:34So my old mate Eddie's getting hitched, eh?
0:27:34 > 0:27:38What's are the matter? Can't stand the pace of the in-crowd?
0:27:38 > 0:27:41Many actors have many facets.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44I do... I can do ego...
0:27:44 > 0:27:46And that's about it.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50Am I pleased to see you or did I just put a canoe in my pocket?
0:27:50 > 0:27:52Down, boy, down!
0:27:52 > 0:27:54I've got a big one. It's a big one.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57< But Flashheart isn't really you, is it?
0:27:57 > 0:27:58- I mean, it's...- No, my ego.
0:28:00 > 0:28:01Who is that?
0:28:01 > 0:28:04I don't know but he's in your place.
0:28:04 > 0:28:06Not for long!
0:28:06 > 0:28:11It really helped, somebody coming in with a different style,
0:28:11 > 0:28:16shall we say! Which gave everybody a bit of a kick up the arse, I think.
0:28:18 > 0:28:20There was a very good head-butt. I'm rather proud of that one.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22I head-butt him through the door.
0:28:24 > 0:28:28Look, I only took the part of Flashheart for the women.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31- Hi, Queenie. You look sexy. Woof! - Woof!
0:28:31 > 0:28:35He's like Errol Flynn coming in, you know, and she's, she's obsessed.
0:28:35 > 0:28:37I've got such a crush on him!
0:28:37 > 0:28:40He's just bigger and louder and got more testosterone.
0:28:40 > 0:28:42Still worshipping God?
0:28:42 > 0:28:43Fancier tights.
0:28:43 > 0:28:45Last thing I heard, he started worshipping me!
0:28:45 > 0:28:49- Ah ha ha ha ha!- Ah ha ha ha ha!
0:28:49 > 0:28:52To be standing next to Rowan is quite an experience.
0:28:52 > 0:28:54My fiancee, Kate.
0:28:54 > 0:28:56Hi, baby!
0:28:56 > 0:28:59'You see then that Rowan is also a great reactor.'
0:29:00 > 0:29:04FRANTIC GRUNTING
0:29:07 > 0:29:10And at the end of it, Rik said, "Did I win?"
0:29:10 > 0:29:14Which isn't really in the spirit of the ensemble, is it?
0:29:14 > 0:29:16I don't know. Of course I haven't counted,
0:29:16 > 0:29:19but I got three-and-a-half rounds of applause and he didn't get one.
0:29:19 > 0:29:20Hurrah!
0:29:23 > 0:29:27Series two was a brilliant success so nothing stood in the way of series three.
0:29:27 > 0:29:31The dastardly duo moved from Elizabethan excess
0:29:31 > 0:29:35to the bewigged and perfumed finery of the 18th century.
0:29:35 > 0:29:38Series three, we took a big old gamble at the beginning,
0:29:38 > 0:29:41that we ended up with such a small cast,
0:29:41 > 0:29:44because there'd been sort of five of them, hadn't there?
0:29:44 > 0:29:48There'd been Melchett and Nursey and Queenie and Percy and Baldrick
0:29:48 > 0:29:51and Rowan, and this time, there was just Baldrick, Rowan and Hugh.
0:29:53 > 0:29:59It was the casting of Prince George alongside Blackadder and Baldrick that brought new life to the show.
0:29:59 > 0:30:03The role went to an actor who's since quickened the pulse of America.
0:30:16 > 0:30:19Roaaaarrr!
0:30:20 > 0:30:22It's a trial, John, you've no idea.
0:30:22 > 0:30:26Have you learned anything about medicine? Can you remember all the stuff?
0:30:26 > 0:30:27For about 20 minutes.
0:30:27 > 0:30:31You know, I can hold it in my head for about 20 minutes, and I could...
0:30:31 > 0:30:33For about 20 minutes, I could probably
0:30:33 > 0:30:35do a coronary bypass operation.
0:30:35 > 0:30:40If you catch me at the right hour, then by all means
0:30:40 > 0:30:43have an aortic infarction at my feet and I'll fix it.
0:30:43 > 0:30:47But, if it's the wrong hour, you're a goner.
0:30:47 > 0:30:49I have to say, it's that my favourite series, Hugh,
0:30:49 > 0:30:51that one, and it's because of you,
0:30:51 > 0:30:54and I remember saying to you on the set that one day,
0:30:54 > 0:30:56you are gonna be such a world-famous actor.
0:30:56 > 0:30:58- Stop it.- I told you.- Stop it.
0:30:58 > 0:31:01I bet you say that to all the actors in Blackadder, third series.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04Hugh's always self-deprecating about it,
0:31:04 > 0:31:05but that's the kind of bloke he is.
0:31:05 > 0:31:07He says, "Oh, I just shouted a lot."
0:31:07 > 0:31:09I'm a gay bachelor, Blackadder.
0:31:09 > 0:31:14I'm a roarer, a rogerer, a gorger and a puker.
0:31:14 > 0:31:17I can't marry. I'm young, I'm firm-buttocked, I'm...
0:31:17 > 0:31:19Broke.
0:31:19 > 0:31:20Well, yes, I suppose so.
0:31:20 > 0:31:24You used to get quite stressed when you were the Prince Regent.
0:31:24 > 0:31:27I came pre-stressed.
0:31:27 > 0:31:29No stress was added.
0:31:29 > 0:31:31I mean, that's what I do. I don't know why.
0:31:31 > 0:31:35I wish I didn't, I wish I could sort of relax and enjoy things more,
0:31:35 > 0:31:37but I don't, I worry about them.
0:31:37 > 0:31:39Just occasionally one can say, "Come on, Hugh."
0:31:39 > 0:31:43Is the entire idea of your misery for us to spend the next three hours
0:31:43 > 0:31:44telling you how great you are?
0:31:44 > 0:31:47Because, whether or not that was the idea, that is the end result!
0:31:47 > 0:31:54Prince George is shy and just pretends to be bluff and crass and unbelievably thick.
0:31:54 > 0:31:59Whilst deep down he is a soft little marshmallowy, pigletty type of creature.
0:31:59 > 0:32:01But I do love the Prince Regent.
0:32:01 > 0:32:02I love his...
0:32:02 > 0:32:04His attempt to be better all the time.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07That's one of the things that's so likeable about him, is,
0:32:07 > 0:32:10he's trying to improve himself, and we know how doomed it is.
0:32:10 > 0:32:13'That vacant, panicky look in his eye. It's bliss.'
0:32:13 > 0:32:16I terminated my uninterrupted categorisation
0:32:16 > 0:32:20of the vocabulary of our post-Norman tongue.
0:32:21 > 0:32:23Well, I don't know what you're talking about,
0:32:23 > 0:32:26but it sounds damn saucy, you lucky thing!
0:32:26 > 0:32:32The classic episode of series three saw the arrival of Robbie Coltrane as Dr Johnson.
0:32:32 > 0:32:33Here it is, sir.
0:32:33 > 0:32:35Author of the very first English dictionary.
0:32:35 > 0:32:40This book, sir, contains every word in our beloved language.
0:32:40 > 0:32:42Every single one, sir?
0:32:42 > 0:32:44- Every single one, sir.- Oh.
0:32:44 > 0:32:48Well, in that case, sir, I hope you will not object if I also offer
0:32:48 > 0:32:51the doctor my most enthusiastic contrafibularities.
0:32:52 > 0:32:53What?
0:32:53 > 0:32:55Contrafibularities, sir.
0:32:55 > 0:32:58- It is a common word down our way. - Damn!
0:32:59 > 0:33:01Oh, I'm sorry, sir.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04I'm anaspeptic, frasmotic,
0:33:05 > 0:33:09even compunctuous to have caused you such pericombobulations.
0:33:10 > 0:33:11What, what, what?
0:33:11 > 0:33:15The funny thing about the dictionary episode is there are things
0:33:15 > 0:33:17in it which I really don't like.
0:33:17 > 0:33:21Robbie's wig, which doesn't fit properly. The poets.
0:33:21 > 0:33:22Be quiet, sir!
0:33:22 > 0:33:24Can't you see we're dying?
0:33:24 > 0:33:27The dream. I suddenly realised I don't like dreams.
0:33:27 > 0:33:32Baldrick! Who gave you permission to turn into an Alsatian?
0:33:32 > 0:33:35Oh, God, it's a dream, isn't it?
0:33:35 > 0:33:38It's a bloody dream.
0:33:38 > 0:33:41But the fundamental idea of the plot was a brilliant moment for us.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44Baldrick, where's the manuscript?
0:33:44 > 0:33:47You mean the big papery thing tied up with string?
0:33:47 > 0:33:50Yes, Baldrick, the manuscript, belonging to Dr Johnson.
0:33:50 > 0:33:54So you're asking where the big papery thing tied up with string,
0:33:54 > 0:33:58belonging to the batey fellow in the black coat who just left, is?
0:33:58 > 0:34:00Yes, Baldrick, I am.
0:34:00 > 0:34:02And if you don't answer,
0:34:02 > 0:34:05then the booted bony thing with five toes on the end of my leg
0:34:05 > 0:34:07will soon connect sharply
0:34:07 > 0:34:10with the soft dangly collection of objects in your trousers.
0:34:10 > 0:34:13I can remember Richard saying, "I've had a great idea.
0:34:13 > 0:34:16"It took Dr Johnson 25 years to write his dictionary.
0:34:16 > 0:34:19"How about he finishes it, lends it to Blackadder,
0:34:19 > 0:34:23"Baldrick puts it on the fire, Blackadder's got a weekend to rewrite the dictionary."
0:34:23 > 0:34:24Now what about D?
0:34:24 > 0:34:28- I'm quite pleased with dog. - Yes, and your definition of dog is?
0:34:28 > 0:34:30Not a cat.
0:34:32 > 0:34:35And I just thought, that is such a beautiful conceit,
0:34:35 > 0:34:39and that's a lot better than writing three good knob gags,
0:34:39 > 0:34:41which is what I was sort of trying to do.
0:34:43 > 0:34:47The dictionary episode was an appropriate highlight for a series
0:34:47 > 0:34:49that revelled in the richness of the English language,
0:34:49 > 0:34:53and was never shy of a scintillating simile.
0:34:53 > 0:34:59He's madder than Mad Jack McMad, the winner of last year's Mr Madman competition.
0:34:59 > 0:35:01You look as happy as a man who thought a cat had done its business
0:35:01 > 0:35:05on his pie but it turned out to be an extra big blackberry.
0:35:05 > 0:35:08I'm as poor as a church mouse that's had an enormous tax bill
0:35:08 > 0:35:12on the very day his wife ran off with another mouse taking all the cheese.
0:35:12 > 0:35:16- A burned novel is like a burned dog...- Oh, shut up!
0:35:19 > 0:35:23The Blackadder scripts are so revered that all these years later,
0:35:23 > 0:35:26the team still pore over the subtleties of their trade
0:35:26 > 0:35:30with fellow literary luminaries, wherever they can be found.
0:35:30 > 0:35:33- Do you want it dedicated to somebody?- To Derrick, please.
0:35:33 > 0:35:36- Thank you.- I love Time Team.
0:35:36 > 0:35:39You really are a national treasure.
0:35:39 > 0:35:41Have you got a favourite quotation?
0:35:41 > 0:35:45We used to play the game of guessing who had written which line.
0:35:45 > 0:35:47We were invariably wrong.
0:35:47 > 0:35:48Thanks.
0:35:50 > 0:35:56When it came to the rehearsals, and this got more intense series by series,
0:35:56 > 0:36:02everyone became fantastically and wonderfully greedy.
0:36:02 > 0:36:05We'd do no rehearsing, we'd sit around at a table,
0:36:05 > 0:36:08arguing about the script and pulling the script to pieces.
0:36:08 > 0:36:12There was one where I said, "I have a message, my lord",
0:36:12 > 0:36:15and Rowan said, "That's the worst message I've ever read",
0:36:15 > 0:36:19and we all went, "Urgh", and it ended up...
0:36:19 > 0:36:22"That's the worst message I've ever heard since..."
0:36:22 > 0:36:26..Lord Nelson's famous signal at the Battle of the Nile,
0:36:26 > 0:36:28"England knows Lady Hamilton
0:36:28 > 0:36:32"is a virgin, poke my eye out and cut off my arm if I'm wrong."
0:36:32 > 0:36:35People fought for their patch.
0:36:35 > 0:36:40Nobody just toed the line and stood where they were told to stand
0:36:40 > 0:36:42and did what they were told to do.
0:36:42 > 0:36:44Everyone stood up for themselves and their characters.
0:36:44 > 0:36:47- It was very free...- Yes.
0:36:47 > 0:36:49- And creative. - Richard wouldn't have said that.
0:36:49 > 0:36:55No, no! "Just read it out" was Richard's... "Just read it out!"
0:36:55 > 0:36:59They would sit around for the entire time discussing the script.
0:36:59 > 0:37:01We'd sometimes say,
0:37:01 > 0:37:04"If you stood up and tried to act this script out,
0:37:04 > 0:37:07"you might find out things about it."
0:37:07 > 0:37:11I hate to raise this having worked on it for three hours
0:37:11 > 0:37:13but is it a good joke, Hugh, since you suggested it?
0:37:13 > 0:37:15This was nothing to do with me.
0:37:15 > 0:37:17It was!
0:37:17 > 0:37:19It was up on the board. I just read it out.
0:37:19 > 0:37:24John and Richard and Hugh and Stephen
0:37:24 > 0:37:28conduct themselves in a very affable way,
0:37:28 > 0:37:32and when they talk about Blackadder now,
0:37:32 > 0:37:35it all seems like it was a bit jolly,
0:37:35 > 0:37:38slightly sticky sometimes, but basically fine.
0:37:40 > 0:37:43I don't remember it quite like that. It was hard.
0:37:43 > 0:37:46Hours would pass and packets of cigarettes would be got through,
0:37:46 > 0:37:51huge quantities of polystyrene hideous muddy coffee would be drunk
0:37:51 > 0:37:54in an effort to try and get the script right.
0:37:54 > 0:37:57Hang on, there's something wrong here.
0:37:57 > 0:38:02Surely if you're ordering a cab for a Mr Redgrave... oh, from Arnos Grove?
0:38:02 > 0:38:06Sometimes it was very tense, I remember some difficult times
0:38:06 > 0:38:12when we appeared to be just sitting around for 2.5 hours,
0:38:12 > 0:38:18bemoaning the lack of writing clarity in a particular scene
0:38:18 > 0:38:22and desperately trying to think how it might be re-orientated to work.
0:38:22 > 0:38:24Just change it to "for".
0:38:26 > 0:38:28If you're a young writer and in with your mates,
0:38:28 > 0:38:31and because you've known them for a long time,
0:38:31 > 0:38:34they're going to be able to slag you off in a way other people
0:38:34 > 0:38:37probably won't now because you're becoming successful.
0:38:37 > 0:38:38That's going to be difficult.
0:38:38 > 0:38:40I remember this like a heart attack....
0:38:42 > 0:38:48That was when I felt the analysis was getting overblown
0:38:48 > 0:38:51and I remember feeling it was better,
0:38:51 > 0:38:55we're now feeling a duty to open everything up at all times.
0:38:55 > 0:38:58I thought it was Mr Redgrave ordering the cab but in fact
0:38:58 > 0:39:05what you're saying is Mr Redgrave is the person who's going to be picked up who's on the top bell, yes?
0:39:08 > 0:39:11'That's roughly how it was when it was good.'
0:39:11 > 0:39:14And when it wasn't so good, it wasn't really like that.
0:39:14 > 0:39:16It was more strained.
0:39:16 > 0:39:20I'm not saying those moments were rare because they weren't.
0:39:20 > 0:39:25They were quite commonplace. There were lots of longeurs between.
0:39:25 > 0:39:28'People sitting with their heads in their hands.'
0:39:28 > 0:39:32And a cab...for a Mr Redgrave,
0:39:32 > 0:39:36picking up from 14 Arnos Grove, ring top bell.
0:39:40 > 0:39:45On the back of the third series, Blackadder was awarded its own Christmas special,
0:39:45 > 0:39:50a parody of Dickens' Christmas Carol with Ebenezer Blackadder in very different form.
0:39:51 > 0:39:59But the fourth series would take our comic anti-heroes into a place where heroes dwell - the First World War.
0:40:05 > 0:40:08Writer Ben Elton and producer John Lloyd
0:40:08 > 0:40:12have come to the Somme to reflect on the setting of the final series.
0:40:12 > 0:40:16I've always been so interested in the First World War.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19Yet I've never been to the cemeteries.
0:40:19 > 0:40:21We've all seen the footage,
0:40:21 > 0:40:27many a panning shot, as we're doing now, but until you actually stand amongst
0:40:27 > 0:40:32tens of thousands of crosses, each with a name on it, it's really...
0:40:34 > 0:40:40- I had a grandfather fight on either side. Did you know my German grandfather got an Iron Cross?- No.
0:40:40 > 0:40:42Yes, he got an Iron Cross.
0:40:42 > 0:40:47Which, actually, is buried in England because as Jewish refugees, they escaped
0:40:47 > 0:40:50from Nazi Europe...escaped, got out,
0:40:50 > 0:40:55my grandad brought his Iron Cross with him and my grandma,
0:40:55 > 0:40:58on discovering it, was horrified.
0:40:58 > 0:41:01Here we are, German accents, Iron Cross,
0:41:01 > 0:41:06people might put two and two together so she buried it in a garden in Hampstead.
0:41:07 > 0:41:13What we discussed back in '88 when we were writing it was not
0:41:13 > 0:41:18taking easy laughs at the expense of such mass heroism.
0:41:20 > 0:41:23Coming here today, I'm very glad we didn't.
0:41:24 > 0:41:30By the time we got to Blackadder Goes Forth, we'd always said that, more than anything,
0:41:30 > 0:41:34we'd like to create a series
0:41:34 > 0:41:36that was very claustrophobic
0:41:36 > 0:41:39where the five or six of us who were the performers
0:41:39 > 0:41:40were trapped in a space
0:41:40 > 0:41:48and what better way to feel that notion of claustrophobia than in the trenches in the First World War?
0:41:48 > 0:41:51Hear the words I sing,
0:41:51 > 0:41:54war's a horrid thing.
0:41:54 > 0:41:57So I sing, sing, sing,
0:41:57 > 0:42:00ding-a-ling-a-ling.
0:42:00 > 0:42:05It was a peculiar and bold thing to make a comedy out of,
0:42:05 > 0:42:10but ultimately a very sympathetic and respectful one
0:42:10 > 0:42:15even though the characters were absurd and moronic at times.
0:42:16 > 0:42:22It never sort of disrespected their courage or sacrifice.
0:42:22 > 0:42:24I joined up straightaway, sir.
0:42:24 > 0:42:27August 4th, 1914, what a day that was.
0:42:27 > 0:42:30Myself and the rest of the fellows leapfrogging down
0:42:30 > 0:42:33to the Cambridge recruiting office and then playing tiddlywinks in the queue.
0:42:33 > 0:42:37We'd hammered Oxford's tiddlywinkers only the week before
0:42:37 > 0:42:39and there we were, off to hammer the Boche.
0:42:39 > 0:42:41And how are the boys now?
0:42:41 > 0:42:45Well, Jocko and the Badger bought it at the first Ypres, unfortunately.
0:42:45 > 0:42:47Quite a shock, that.
0:42:47 > 0:42:51Those awful policies, of what were called the Pals Brigades,
0:42:51 > 0:42:55because in 1914 people joined up together, whole gangs, the pub would
0:42:55 > 0:43:00march to the recruiting station, a cricket team or the tiddlywinks team as we said in Blackadder.
0:43:00 > 0:43:04They'd all go together and the idea was they will fight together,
0:43:04 > 0:43:07fight for each other and this industrial war didn't have time
0:43:07 > 0:43:11for people to fight for each other because people would be mown down in an instant.
0:43:11 > 0:43:17Gosh, I suppose I'm the only one of the Trinity Tiddlers still alive.
0:43:18 > 0:43:20There's a thought and not a jolly one.
0:43:20 > 0:43:25People don't stop making jokes because somebody is killed around the corner. In many ways,
0:43:25 > 0:43:32life, as people say who've been fighting in real wars, life becomes very precious and pumped up.
0:43:32 > 0:43:34Baldrick, what are you doing out there?
0:43:34 > 0:43:37- I'm carving something on this bullet, sir.- What?
0:43:37 > 0:43:41I'm carving, "Baldrick", sir.
0:43:41 > 0:43:45- Why?- It's a cunning plan, actually. - Of course it is.
0:43:45 > 0:43:49You know they say somewhere there's a bullet with your name on it?
0:43:52 > 0:43:53Yeeeeees.
0:43:53 > 0:43:58I thought if I owned the bullet with my name on, I'd never get hit by it.
0:43:58 > 0:44:02One of the things that strikes me about that last series
0:44:02 > 0:44:05is how isolated all the characters in it are.
0:44:05 > 0:44:06Are you a bit cheesed off, sir?
0:44:06 > 0:44:10George, the day this war began I was cheesed off.
0:44:10 > 0:44:15Within ten minutes of you turning up, I'd finished the cheese and moved on to the coffee and cigars.
0:44:15 > 0:44:20The world weariness of Blackadder was something extraordinary,
0:44:20 > 0:44:22something beaten down.
0:44:22 > 0:44:25He was not necessary going to win all the time.
0:44:25 > 0:44:29And knew he wasn't, which gave it a darker edge, I thought.
0:44:29 > 0:44:33Baldrick finds his absolute apotheosis as the Tommy.
0:44:33 > 0:44:37He can make the best of everything, turn things to his advantage,
0:44:37 > 0:44:40however ghastly it is. He can find a better puddle to go to.
0:44:40 > 0:44:45I believe Baldrick is the key to Blackadder and the key to why it's popular.
0:44:45 > 0:44:50He's the common man. We all identify with this downtrodden guy who's not respected by anybody,
0:44:50 > 0:44:57even when he's supposed be stupid, Baldrick's analysis of everything is simple but basically truthful.
0:44:57 > 0:45:00Are you looking forward to the big push?
0:45:00 > 0:45:05No, sir, I'm absolutely terrified.
0:45:05 > 0:45:08Hmmm, the healthy humour of the honest Tommy. Ha-ha!
0:45:08 > 0:45:15I had the privilege of performing a part that represented the ordinary lives of the grandfathers
0:45:15 > 0:45:19of an awful lot of people in the country in which I live.
0:45:19 > 0:45:25But really it was for them to imbue Baldrick with that notion rather than me.
0:45:25 > 0:45:27I was just a bloke who couldn't make coffee.
0:45:27 > 0:45:30Baldrick, fix us some coffee, will you?
0:45:30 > 0:45:33And try to make it taste slightly less like mud this time.
0:45:33 > 0:45:36- Not easy, I'm afraid, Captain. - Why is this?- Because it IS mud!
0:45:36 > 0:45:40In the original script, Ben had written this line
0:45:40 > 0:45:43about Baldrick saying he'd made the coffee out of mud.
0:45:43 > 0:45:46We ran out of coffee 13 months ago.
0:45:46 > 0:45:50So every time I've drunk your coffee since, I have in fact been drinking hot mud.
0:45:50 > 0:45:54And in rehearsals, as was so often the case, someone said,
0:45:54 > 0:45:56"Well, shouldn't there be milk in the coffee?"
0:45:56 > 0:45:58Well, saliva.
0:45:58 > 0:46:00And then there should be sugar.
0:46:00 > 0:46:04- Which is?- Dandruff.
0:46:04 > 0:46:09And then I know this was Tim McInnerny, very late in the week, he suddenly said,
0:46:09 > 0:46:15just for us, not cos he thought it would go in the script, "We could always make it cappuccino."
0:46:15 > 0:46:17BALDRICK SPITS
0:46:20 > 0:46:22Here you are, sir.
0:46:22 > 0:46:24Ah, cappuccino.
0:46:29 > 0:46:33Have you got any of that brown stuff you sprinkle on the top?
0:46:33 > 0:46:36- Well, I'm sure I could...- No, no.
0:46:36 > 0:46:39'In the initial rehearsals, he wasn't even called Darling.'
0:46:39 > 0:46:44He was called Captain Cartwright, which is kind of dull.
0:46:44 > 0:46:47I didn't really know who he was and couldn't get an angle on him.
0:46:47 > 0:46:50I had this bizarre idea that maybe if there was something
0:46:50 > 0:46:55laughable about him, teaseable, and then it occurred to me maybe a name.
0:46:55 > 0:46:57A really silly name.
0:46:57 > 0:46:58What's going on, Darling?
0:46:58 > 0:47:02Suddenly, this character was born out of nowhere just cos of the name.
0:47:02 > 0:47:03You never mentioned this to me, sir.
0:47:03 > 0:47:05Well, we have to have some secrets, don't we, Darling?
0:47:05 > 0:47:07It's such a simple joke,
0:47:07 > 0:47:09calling someone Darling,
0:47:09 > 0:47:12especially if he's such a bitter, nasty man.
0:47:12 > 0:47:15The way Stephen could come out, "Oh, Darling."
0:47:15 > 0:47:16Get a laugh every single time.
0:47:16 > 0:47:20Captain Darling? Funny name for a guy, isn't it?
0:47:20 > 0:47:24Last person I called "darling" was pregnant 20 seconds later.
0:47:24 > 0:47:29Every time his name is mentioned it's like a knife in his heart, twisting.
0:47:29 > 0:47:35His hatred and self-loathing and self-denial is getting more and more tortured.
0:47:35 > 0:47:37Just doing my job, Blackadder.
0:47:37 > 0:47:42Obeying orders and of course having enormous fun into the bargain.
0:47:42 > 0:47:47Darling and Blackadder are kind of the same. They're lower middle-class,
0:47:47 > 0:47:49semi-gentlemen.
0:47:49 > 0:47:56Obviously one of them has connived himself onto the staff and the other one is bad-lucked into the trenches.
0:47:56 > 0:48:03You're a damned fine chap, not a pen-pushing, desk-sucking blotter-jotter like Darling here.
0:48:03 > 0:48:04- Eh, Darling?- No, sir.
0:48:10 > 0:48:12Oh, you're always so good at this. Oh, yes.
0:48:14 > 0:48:22Oddly enough, these feet aren't the same feet I used to play General Melchett in Blackadder.
0:48:22 > 0:48:30Those were my early feet, I lost those feet in a card game to Keith Allen in 1992.
0:48:30 > 0:48:33These are my second pair of feet.
0:48:33 > 0:48:36Young people playing old people is very funny.
0:48:36 > 0:48:41Because I was in my 20s and I was playing a general, it was somehow
0:48:41 > 0:48:45funnier than if I'd been the right age to be a general which I now am.
0:48:45 > 0:48:47It had to be a 30-year-old playing a 60-year-old.
0:48:47 > 0:48:50If it had been a 60-year-old actor it would have been different.
0:48:50 > 0:48:52It might have been funny but in a different way.
0:48:52 > 0:48:54It wouldn't have worked the way Melchett worked.
0:48:54 > 0:48:57It's the authority of youth.
0:48:57 > 0:49:04Slightly red cheeks I remember having cos he was constantly puffing and blowing.
0:49:04 > 0:49:09Constantly... I had in my head that he had piles so when I sat down...
0:49:09 > 0:49:14Oh! Like that, these strange noises, bleats and baas.
0:49:14 > 0:49:16- Baa! Baa!- Baa!
0:49:16 > 0:49:19Baa!
0:49:19 > 0:49:24Baa! It's an extraordinary gift to play a character who's afraid of no-one, who's in supreme command.
0:49:24 > 0:49:27It was just wonderfully... He was seamless.
0:49:27 > 0:49:32There was this feeling of an unstoppable train of a performance.
0:49:32 > 0:49:34- Who is the judge, by the way?- Baa!
0:49:34 > 0:49:36I'm dead.
0:49:38 > 0:49:41Come on. We'll get this over in five minutes and have a spot of lunch.
0:49:41 > 0:49:43The court is now in session.
0:49:43 > 0:49:46General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett in the chair.
0:49:46 > 0:49:52I remember five or six years after Blackadder IV, I was walking along
0:49:52 > 0:49:56the street and somebody shouted at me, "You bastard pigging murderer!"
0:49:56 > 0:49:59I thought, "Oh, God, it's a loony."
0:49:59 > 0:50:04So I quickened my step and then I heard footsteps hurrying after me.
0:50:04 > 0:50:06"Mr Fry, Mr Fry!" I went, "Yes?"
0:50:06 > 0:50:08He said, "Sorry, you seem upset."
0:50:08 > 0:50:11I said, "You called me a bastard pigging murderer."
0:50:11 > 0:50:14He said, "No, I said Flanders pigeon murderer."
0:50:14 > 0:50:19The case before us is that of the Crown versus Captain Edmund Blackadder.
0:50:19 > 0:50:23The Flanders pigeon murderer.
0:50:23 > 0:50:28Clerk, hand me the black cap, I'll be needing that.
0:50:28 > 0:50:30I love a fair trial.
0:50:32 > 0:50:38For all the comedy bawling and bleating, the final episode saw events take an extraordinary turn
0:50:38 > 0:50:43as Captain Blackadder and his troops braced themselves for the inevitable.
0:50:43 > 0:50:49- Don't forget your stick, lieutenant. - Rather, sir. I wouldn't want to face a machine-gun without this.
0:50:49 > 0:50:55I just remember feeling, you know, the impending doom, for my character,
0:50:55 > 0:50:57'and I remember feeling
0:50:57 > 0:51:01'this strange sort of knot in the pit of my stomach.'
0:51:01 > 0:51:03It was the first time, as an actor,
0:51:03 > 0:51:07that I had felt the predicament of my character.
0:51:07 > 0:51:09'I was going to die at the end of the week.'
0:51:11 > 0:51:14'It was much more like a serious play or a drama'
0:51:14 > 0:51:17as all the comedy kind of melts and fades out of it,
0:51:17 > 0:51:19and it becomes sadder and sadder,
0:51:19 > 0:51:20'and more and more tragic,
0:51:20 > 0:51:24'and, eventually, almost unbearably moving and sad.
0:51:24 > 0:51:27'It's valedictory.'
0:51:34 > 0:51:38I hope no-one was left in any doubt of the respect
0:51:38 > 0:51:41I think everybody on the team had for...
0:51:41 > 0:51:44for the sacrifices made and the honour of the people involved.
0:51:44 > 0:51:49But it was a damn silly war and if ever there was a subject,
0:51:49 > 0:51:51you know, requiring of satire,
0:51:51 > 0:51:54it's people, no matter how honourably
0:51:54 > 0:51:58and no matter how nobly, blindly going to war.
0:51:58 > 0:52:01Company, one pace forward!
0:52:03 > 0:52:06On the signal, Company will advance.
0:52:06 > 0:52:08WHISTLE BLOWS
0:52:08 > 0:52:10Good luck, everyone.
0:52:10 > 0:52:11WHISTLE BLOWS
0:52:11 > 0:52:15- CHARGE! - PERCUSSIVE RATTLE OF GUNFIRE
0:52:15 > 0:52:18In those days, you had to get out of the studio by 10 o'clock.
0:52:18 > 0:52:21If you didn't, the electricians would pull the switch.
0:52:21 > 0:52:26'At ten to ten, we finished filming in our normal studio,'
0:52:26 > 0:52:29we then had to race across to the other studio
0:52:29 > 0:52:33and it was then that we saw this no-man's land set for the first time
0:52:33 > 0:52:35and it looked dreadful.
0:52:35 > 0:52:40OK, well, this, apparently, is the original footage
0:52:40 > 0:52:42from the very last scene of Blackadder IV
0:52:42 > 0:52:44where they all go over the top.
0:52:44 > 0:52:47I haven't seen this since 1989.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50- Action!- Charge!
0:52:52 > 0:52:54They're actually only running - what? -
0:52:54 > 0:52:5615 yards before they hit the barbed wire
0:52:56 > 0:52:58and stand around looking like lemons,
0:52:58 > 0:53:01then pretend to die and it's very embarrassing.
0:53:01 > 0:53:05CHARGE!
0:53:05 > 0:53:07RATTLE OF MACHINE GUNS
0:53:07 > 0:53:12GUNFIRE CONTINUES
0:53:17 > 0:53:20HE CHUCKLES
0:53:20 > 0:53:23It's pretty unconvincing, isn't it?
0:53:25 > 0:53:27Now they've done a close-up here.
0:53:27 > 0:53:31There's a ghastly shot of Hugh and Tim
0:53:31 > 0:53:34and Baldrick dying.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39Rowan pretending to die but keeping his eyes open.
0:53:39 > 0:53:41He's getting up and he looks cross.
0:53:41 > 0:53:43Well, that's...
0:53:44 > 0:53:46me looking decidedly miffed.
0:53:46 > 0:53:48And that's the end of it.
0:53:48 > 0:53:51I can remember coming away thinking,
0:53:51 > 0:53:54"I've no idea how we're going to end the series."
0:53:54 > 0:53:57I thought they would end it before we actually went over the top.
0:53:57 > 0:54:00It's one of the lowest points, I think, of my television career
0:54:00 > 0:54:04thinking, "The end of this amazing series and I've just screwed it up."
0:54:04 > 0:54:05As it was so obvious
0:54:05 > 0:54:10that we had so little material to work with, we had to really slow
0:54:10 > 0:54:14the pictures right down in order to stretch them in time
0:54:14 > 0:54:17but that produced an incredibly good effect
0:54:17 > 0:54:21with the flashes which were going over on the right of the picture
0:54:21 > 0:54:24and the debris that falls over Rowan's character.
0:54:24 > 0:54:28In slow motion, this suddenly achieved a grandeur
0:54:28 > 0:54:31which was not obvious in the full motion.
0:54:31 > 0:54:35The assistant editor said, "What if we slowed the sound down?"
0:54:35 > 0:54:37ECHOING GUNFIRE
0:54:37 > 0:54:39And suddenly we had this - pwuffch! -
0:54:39 > 0:54:43this slow-motion sound effect and it starts to get really quite spooky.
0:54:43 > 0:54:48BLACKADDER THEME AT SLOW SPEED
0:54:53 > 0:54:57Having got Rowan virtually obscured by the debris,
0:54:57 > 0:54:59to go to the next shot
0:54:59 > 0:55:03where we're now in a blank no-man's land wide shot,
0:55:03 > 0:55:07our characters are seen virtually to melt into the landscape.
0:55:09 > 0:55:12And then somebody, I think it was the PA, said,
0:55:12 > 0:55:15"We should get some poppies. What if...? I think..."
0:55:15 > 0:55:19And someone got very excited and ran upstairs to the picture library
0:55:19 > 0:55:22and got a still, a transparency, of some poppies.
0:55:24 > 0:55:27The last decision, some bright spark in sound,
0:55:27 > 0:55:29said, "Let's put some birdsong on it."
0:55:29 > 0:55:34TRILL OF BIRDSONG
0:55:34 > 0:55:35Even in the edit
0:55:35 > 0:55:41it was obviously one of the most moving things that I had ever seen.
0:55:46 > 0:55:50In the 19 years since the series ended, the team have each gone on
0:55:50 > 0:55:53to achieve greatness in their own right.
0:55:53 > 0:55:55But for all of them, there remains
0:55:55 > 0:55:58something special about the Blackadder era.
0:56:00 > 0:56:06'I think that I'd have to say that it just seems an unbelievably'
0:56:06 > 0:56:10lucky break that something which was just a bit of work
0:56:10 > 0:56:14that I did for a chunk of time, you know, doing the best I could
0:56:14 > 0:56:19with people I really liked, has turned out to last so well.
0:56:19 > 0:56:21'I don't think there'd been anything
0:56:21 > 0:56:24'that enjoyed history like that.'
0:56:24 > 0:56:29The relationship between lords and ladies and dukes and peasants.
0:56:29 > 0:56:33The whole panoply and richness of what it is to come from our culture.
0:56:33 > 0:56:36'It was just a very enjoyable experience'
0:56:36 > 0:56:40of spending extended periods of time
0:56:40 > 0:56:45with people with whom you felt a tremendous creative empathy.
0:56:45 > 0:56:48I was doing Time Team once and somebody said me,
0:56:48 > 0:56:51"Here, aren't you that bloke that used to be funny?"
0:56:51 > 0:56:54THEY CHUCKLE
0:56:54 > 0:56:57Only one question remains.
0:56:57 > 0:56:59Dear, oh, dear. Oh, Lord.
0:56:59 > 0:57:03Will they ever be funny together again?
0:57:03 > 0:57:05- Would you do it again?- What?
0:57:05 > 0:57:08- Blackadder.- No.
0:57:08 > 0:57:09Because?
0:57:09 > 0:57:12HE SIGHS
0:57:12 > 0:57:15Too old...for one thing.
0:57:15 > 0:57:19I don't think people want to see us the way we look now. I really don't.
0:57:19 > 0:57:21They want those memories.
0:57:21 > 0:57:24There's often talk of a fifth series.
0:57:24 > 0:57:28If you had to do another one, what setting would you like to do it in?
0:57:28 > 0:57:34If we'd done another one, I think we were going to set it in the '60s.
0:57:34 > 0:57:37He had this idea of Adder as a sort of Brian Epstein figure
0:57:37 > 0:57:39and Baldrick as a drummer,
0:57:39 > 0:57:42a Ringo-style drummer, called Bald Rick
0:57:42 > 0:57:43who has to wear a Beatle wig.
0:57:43 > 0:57:46Rowan as the bastard son of Queen Elizabeth II
0:57:46 > 0:57:49but also running a rock band in the King's Road.
0:57:49 > 0:57:52It's already sounding shit. That'll be why we never made it.
0:57:52 > 0:57:57The one I really liked the idea for was the one set in Neanderthal times.
0:57:57 > 0:58:01Out of the jungle comes homo Blackadder.
0:58:01 > 0:58:03I thought you meant gay Blackadder!
0:58:03 > 0:58:05Oh, I thought you meant homo Blackadder.
0:58:05 > 0:58:08I was just going, "Not many parts for girls there then!"
0:58:08 > 0:58:10What about you, Tony, what would you've liked?
0:58:10 > 0:58:13We talked about loads of ones.
0:58:13 > 0:58:16I love the idea of a cowboy one.
0:58:16 > 0:58:18I'd do that. Definitely.
0:58:18 > 0:58:22Where I get to be a sort of Calamity Jane or something. Fantastic.
0:58:22 > 0:58:24In a prisoner-of-war camp in the Second World War.
0:58:24 > 0:58:28I've always personally favoured the Colditz idea.
0:58:28 > 0:58:33But maybe it's best to leave these things as a memory.
0:58:33 > 0:58:37SCOTTISH ACCENT: Aye, times past. That's what they were.
0:58:37 > 0:58:40# Blackadder, Blackadder
0:58:40 > 0:58:44# His taste is rather odd
0:58:44 > 0:58:47# Blackadder, Blackadder
0:58:47 > 0:58:51# A randy little sod!
0:58:51 > 0:58:54# Blackadder, Blackadder
0:58:54 > 0:58:56# Who gives a toss?
0:58:56 > 0:58:58# No-one! #