I recently received an email from Chris Hallam over at Chortle telling me all about the articles he’s written on the site related to Blackadder. Rather than doing a copy/paste job on here, I’ve opted to link to them instead.
Enjoy.
http://www.chortle.co.uk/
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After Rowan’s monumental and frankly quite epic performance at the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Official Olympic Games (or whatever it is called); he decided to take to Twitter and announce that the Blackadder team were getting back together for one last hurrah.
Except he didn’t.
It wasn’t Rowan; it was someone masquerading as him (a common problem for celebrities/people in the public eye on Twitter). How do I know this? I spoke to Richard Curtis this morning who confirmed that it was fake. Rowan Atkinson is not on Twitter; hardly a surprise given how private he is.
And guess what? The Blackadder reunion? That was fake also.
It is a shame that some websites didn’t check their facts before writing about the fakery as if it was real.
While this is something I have always known, it seems others also share this belief as Blackadder has been voted the best British TV show ever in a recent poll ahead of such classics as Sherlock, Dr. Who and Father Ted.
Two more comedies – Fawlty Towers and Father Ted – came second and third respectively in the poll of 13,500 people carried out by the film subscription service LoveFilm.
Here’s the top ten for your enjoyment:
1. Blackadder
2. Fawlty Towers
3. Father Ted
4. Only Fools and Horses
5. Dr Who
6. Sherlock
7. Have I Got News For You
8. Red Dwarf
9. The Inbetweeners
10. Top Gear
It is with sadness that I write to inform you that actor David Nunn, who appeared in three episodes of The Black Adder and for me is most fondly remembered as the fat orphan in Blackadder’s Christmas Carol, passed away earlier this week; he was aged 49.
His friend, Robert Taylor who contacted me, said “Dave was a friend of mine and a lovely man and will be missed by all”.
My thoughts and condolences to family, friends and those that knew him.
(image: http://www.wearysloth.com/)
TONY ROBINSON has revealed he wants to make a new Blackadder series but there’s a drawback: “We can’t afford Hugh Laurie’s salary.”
The 65-year-old actor, who played Baldrick in the TV comedy for six years during the Eighties, told Day & Night that he has been longing for another stab at the show and is confident that creator and lead star Rowan Atkinson fancies reuniting.
“Yes I would but I don’t think we’d be able to afford Hugh Laurie’s salary do you?” he told us at the Chortle awards this week. “Rowan’s said he’d be up for it. The story always was that we’d do one where Rowan, aka Blackadder, was the bastard son of Queen Elizabeth II who used to hang around the King’s Road in the Sixties and had his own rock band including a drummer with no hair called Bald Rick. If ever that happened I’d certainly be up for that.”
Robinson says he was riddled with self-doubt when making the series but now can see its worth as a British comedy great.
“I always used to beat myself up because I thought I was terrible and it was terrible. Just occasionally I’ll catch a glimpse of it on TV and think, ‘I’m quite proud of that!’ It’s a nice feeling to have.”
However the Time Team host adds: “Every decade people say, ‘Comedy isn’t what it used to be’ and I think that’s totally disproved. The amount of good work on TV is fantastic.”
Back in 2004, the BBC broadcast a series that wanted to find ‘Britain’s Best Sitcom’. The British public voted by phone and text during 2003 to decide on the top 100. With the results in, the top 10 were produced and a celebrity advocate of a sitcom was chosen to put their case to the public to ultimately decide on what would be the greatest sitcom.
John Sergeant states why ‘Blackadder’ is his favourite sitcom.
To celebrate the launch of Rowan’s new movie, Johnny English Reborn, iTunes are giving away for FREE, yes, absolutely FREE the complete second series of The BlackAdder. That’s six fantastic episodes to keep forever and ever.
Get it here!
The promotion runs from now until October 21st 2011; so get downloading.
*Only applies to US iTunes account holders. So if you don’t have a US iTunes account; create one 😉
In a recent interview, Rowan has confirmed that there will be no new Blackadder; something I very much suspected would be the case.
On this Rowan said “I made the mistake in Britain to say that it might be a good idea. Now everyone thinks it is going to happen but it is not,” he admitted. “Everyone is much too busy with their own other stuff. And besides that I always believed that ‘Blackadder’ was a comedy consensus of a group of creative people in a certain period of their lives.
“If you put these people in the same room again 20 years later that consensus has changed.”
So there you have it.
I’ve uncovered some rare footage and deleted scenes from Blackadder II; these have been added to the ‘Rare Bits’ section of the site. To see the clip, click here.
It’s been a while since the last rumours of a new Blackadder series; the latest comes courtesy of Mr B. himself, Rowan Atkinson.
Currently doing the press interviews to promote his new movie, Johnny English Reborn (which also stars fellow Blackadder star Tim Tim McInnery), Rowan has been quizzed a couple of times about a new series of The Blackadder and here’s what he has to say on the subject.
Source: Daybreak TV
“It could be reprised in some form or other. I think there is a possibility of a fifth series.”
“We’re all getting a bit old, sadly, to play the characters in the way we did so we’d have to shift it a bit to make it work. They’ve all got slightly different attitudes and experiences to call upon now. It would be nice to get them all back together.”
My thoughts on this? I think they should NOT do another series; their last official outing as a whole was Blackadder Back & Forth – and for me, that’s the weakest of them all. The existing four series are timeless classics, but ‘the sitcom’ and TV comedy in general has changed since Blackadder left our screens at the end of series 4. And as Rowan has (and others beside) pointed out, the cast are getting a bit old now and I feel it just wouldn’t feel the same. It would be like doing another series of Fawlty Towers or Only Fools and Horses.
However, I do feel there are legs in the old beast yet; just not on TV. A radio series or one of those new-fangled podcasts could work as the actor’s voices are still as distinctive today as they were 25 years a go.
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