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Tim McInnerny has expressed his delight at being cast in a Doctor Who episode, believing it to be a “mark of respect”.

McInnerney, who plays Mr Halpen in ‘Planet of the Ood’, told Radio Times magazine: “Apart from having watched Doctor Who since the age of four, it’s like The Morecambe and Wise Show - a mark of respect that you’re asked to be in it.”

“From an actor’s point of view, they’re some of the best scripts on television,” continued the actor, best known for his roles in Blackadder and Severance.

Speaking about his villainous role in the episode, McInnerny added: “Halpen has great lines. He’s witty and intelligent. He’s not a cartoon baddie… he has a complexity. You do have some understanding of why he behaves the way he does.”

Willoughby Goddard, known to us Blackadder fans as the Archbishop in The Black Adder episode “The Queen of Spain’s Beard” has died at the age of 81.

Born on July 4, 1926, Willoughby Goddard will be known to many viewers of television programmes from the 1950s to the 1980s.

His on-screen appearances are too numerous to list, but included hit shows such as Blackadder, The Famous Five, The Sweeney, Space: 1999, The Avengers, and The Saint.

Mr Goddard, whose heavy build made him perfect for many character roles, played the Austrian tyrant Gessler in the 1958 Adventures of William Tell.

In some of his final screen performances in the mid-1980s, Mr Goddard was Professor Siblington at a fictional Cambridge college in Tom Sharpe’s hit comedy Porterhouse Blue. He was also Cardinal Wolsey in the 1986 film God’s Outlaw.

Mr Goddard, who as a schoolboy is said to have set a record swimming in the River Isis, made his stage debut at the Oxford Playhouse in 1943.

A favourite with critics on stage, Mr Goddard played Sir Toby Belch in a 1979 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Twelfth Night.

Although his career was reportedly curtailed by arthritis in later years, he remained familiar as the voice of the Fox’s Glacier Mint bear.

Ben Elton is going to be a busy man this year, not only is he penning the sequel to We Will Rock You, but he has also signed up to help Andrew Lloyd Webber with the sequel to Phantom of the Opera. Best known for his Blackadder work, Ben Elton has also had a hand in a few successful musicals. The Little Mermaid lyricist Glen Slater has also signed up for the sequel and will be putting his lyrics to Webber’s music.

Comedian and writer Ben Elton has accused the BBC of being too “scared” to allow jokes about Islam.

Elton, who co-wrote critically acclaimed sitcoms such as The Young Ones and Blackadder, said the BBC’s reluctance to run material that might offend Muslims was based on fear rather than morality.

Speaking in an interview with Christian magazine Third Way, Elton was asked if too much deference was shown to religious people.

“I think it all starts with people nodding whenever anybody says, ‘As a person of faith …’,” Elton replied.

“And I believe that part of it is due to the genuine fear that the authorities and the community have about provoking the radical elements of Islam,” he said.

“There’s no doubt about it, the BBC will let vicar gags pass but they would not let imam gags pass.

“They might pretend that it’s, you know, something to do with their moral sensibilities, but it isn’t. It’s because they’re scared. I know these people.”

Elton said it was difficult to use even common sayings: “I wanted to use the phrase ‘Muhammad came to the mountain’ and everybody said, ‘Oh, don’t! Just don’t! Don’t go there!’.

“It was nothing to do with Islam, I was merely referring to the old proverb, ‘If the mountain won’t come to Muhammad, Muhammad must go to the mountain.’ And people said, ‘Let’s just not!’ It’s incredible.”

Elton described himself as an atheist but said he was in favour of God defined as “the mystery of the universe”. His children attend a Church of England school and he said he attended church occasionally.

Elton’s comments were refuted by the BBC. “No subject is off limits for BBC comedy,” a BBC spokesman said.

“The treatment should not cause harm or offence as defined by the BBC’s editorial guidelines or breach other BBC guidelines. There’s no evidence that the BBC is afraid to tackle difficult subjects.”

In the interview, Elton also talked about the decline of traditional sitcoms that could be enjoyed by mass audiences.

“I don’t think it’s the fault of artists, or even commissioners; I think it’s the fault of technology … You can’t smash the Spinning Jenny, but we need to at least recognise its consequences,” he said.

“When I say that the chances of another Dad’s Army developing are diminishing, it’s because even if there is one happening at the moment, not enough people are going to notice for it to enter our consciousness and for us all to come to love it.”

Elton’s most recent sitcom was the 2005 BBC1 series Blessed, which starred Ardal O’Hanlon and Mel Giedroyc as a young couple bringing up children.

He said his 1990s sitcom The Thin Blue Line, which starred Rowan Atkinson as a policeman, had been “castigated - I mean, brutal, absolutely unbelievable. It was accused of being almost wicked in its awfulness”.

Elton added that Blackadder was now seen as “something of value, although not at the time”.

“I’ve recently watched some Blackadders again for the first time in nearly 20 years and I’ve taken enormous joy in the fact that my kids love ‘em,” he said.

“That’s something I never thought about when it was happening - that 20 years later I’d be sitting and watching it with my children.”

Source: Guardian.co.uk

Another series of BBC comedy ‘Blackadder’ is set to begin filming in June and it will be set in a future London of 2145. The BBC say it is ‘excited’ about the project.

“We are happy to announce that a 5th series of the show will air on BBC 1 in November” said BBC spokesman Eddie Yates. “So far Tony Robinson, Tim McInnerny, Stephen Fry and Hugh Lauire have all signed up to the cast.”

However Blackadder himself will be played by former Manchester United, Aston Villa and West Brom manager, Ron Atkinson.

“We got an intern at the BBC to mail out the contracts,” explained Yates. “He sent Rowan’s to Ron. Ron signed it so we are obligated to have Ron as the main lead. Sorry about that.”

Atkinson (Ron) is delighted. “I love Blackadder, and I reckon I’m as funny as Atkinson (Rowan). I can’t wait to drive that green mini.”

“Sorry about that” said Yates, again.

The BBC’s archive of coats, dresses and frilly shirts has been bought by Oscar-winning costume house Angels. It ends a period of uncertainty for the BBC costume department, which ceased trading in February after initial attempts to sell its collection failed.

More than one million items from shows such as Ashes To Ashes and Blackadder will be transferred to Angels’ HQ in Hendon, north London, from next week. Angels is the UK’s biggest supplier of costumes to the film and TV industry.

The family-run business has provided tunics to Star Wars, loincloths to Gladiator and ruffs to Elizabeth: The Golden Age. It won its first Oscar for costume design with Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet in 1948, and has picked up a further 29 Academy Awards. Among those were prizes for films such as Titanic, Gandhi, Memoirs of a Geisha and The English Patient.

‘Chuffed’

The BBC costume department began life on the third floor of Television Centre in west London as a store for the collars and cuffs worn by early TV presenters and newsreaders. Over the next 50 years, it grew into an operation hiring out 15,000 outfits a year, with a turnover of around £1.3 million.

Last year, the BBC announced it was to sell the department as part of a wide range of cuts at the corporation. However, an early bid - thought to be from prop hire company Superhire - fell through. The deal with Angels means that the archive of costumes will remain available for use by British film industry professionals and international productions in the UK.

The BBC’s collection of around 10,000 wigs has been sold separately to a new company formed by former employees of the costume department.

Chairman of Angels the Costumiers, Tim Angel, said he was “very excited” by the acquisition.

“I’ve been working in the costume business for 40 years and one of my first briefs was to try and get BBC work,” he said.

“So I’m quite chuffed we’ve managed to buy the stock, because it keeps it all together, and I think that’s important”.

Angels will also take on four staff from the BBC’s costume department to “provide continuity”. Around 20 staff worked in the department before it closed in February, and several have been made redundant. It will take about six weeks to transfer the costumes to Angels’ warehouses, which already contain six-and-a-half miles of costumes.

Rowan Atkinson is to star as Fagin in the forthcoming West End stage production of Oliver!

The cast will also include the winners of the BBC show I’d Do Anything - one actress will play Nancy and three boys will take turns to play the lead role.

Blackadder star Atkinson, 53, said the role was a long-held ambition.

“In the 1980s I enjoyed doing a lot of West End theatre and since then have been distracted very much by Mr Bean and film-making,” he said.

“I had been thinking for some time about returning to the stage and the idea of the role of Fagin, which has long intrigued me.

“Some time ago I even played the role in a school production [so it] seemed like too good an opportunity to miss.”

 ’Perfect marriage’

Sir Cameron Mackintosh’s production of the Lionel Bart musical opens at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in December. It will feature a cast 100-strong cast.

Sir Cameron said he had been in discussions with Atkinson “on and off for many years”.

“To me this idea has always promised the perfect marriage of a brilliant mercurial role with a brilliant mercurial comic actor,” he added.

The 1994 London Palladium production of Oliver! played 1,366 performances over three years and made more than £40m at the box office.

Atkinson made his big-screen debut in 1983’s unofficial James Bond picture Never Say Never Again.

His other film credits include Johnny English, Four Weddings And A Funeral and Love, Actually.

It has been nearly 20 years since they starred in the classic TV sitcom, but now the cast of Blackadder Goes Forth could soon be reunited; by Leeds City Council.

It is inviting Rowan Atkinson and the rest of the Blackadder gang, including Tony Robinson who played his turnip-loving sidekick – to its garden exhibition at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show.

The garden design was inspired by the grounds of Talbot House, a rest centre for troops near Ypres in Belgium during the First World War.

Staff working on the entry at Shadwell’s Redhall Nursery recently realised that it includes a plant known as a black adder.

That provided the connection to the final series of Blackadder, set in the First World War and ending in tearjerking fashion as its soldier characters went ‘over the top’.

Other Blackadder actors receiving invitations are Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry, above, as well as writers Ben Elton and Richard Curtis.

Leeds’ 1,800 sq ft garden will be ferried to London by articulated trucks before going on display between May 20 and 24.

To coincide with the release of their new book, “History - The Definitive Guide”, Dorling Kindersley have created a rather spiffing poll; vote for your favourite hero or villain. All you need to do is follow this link and choose either HERO or VILLAIN - and enter their name. - I urge everyone to vote Edmund Blackadder as the ultimate villain. If you live in the UK, you can also enter their prize draw to win a weekend away for two in a historical hotel.

Exeter’s Underground Passages will be officially re-launched by actor and television presenter Tony Robinson and his Time Team.Mr Robinson, perhaps best known for his role as Baldrick in the Blackadder series, will perform the official reopening of the unique historic passages next Friday.

The passages reopened to the public earlier this month after being closed since 2005 during the development of Princesshay.

Mr Robinson, who has a keen interest in history and archaeology and has presented Channel 4’s popular Time Team series for 12 years, said that he was delighted to be invited to the city.

“Exeter has a rich history and these passages provide a fascinating insight into medieval life in the city,” he said.

“The new interpretation centre makes the experience even more enjoyable for visitors of all ages and helps to bring history to life.”

City councillor for economy and tourism Greg Sheldon said: “We are delighted to welcome Tony to our unique Underground Passages.

“We want to ensure that residents and visitors to Exeter are aware of the passages and it is vital that those working in tourism know how much the passages and our new interpretation centre have to offer.

“This is a fantastic opportunity for those in the industry to see the passages and explore the exciting new entrance and interpretation centre.”

The centre, located in Paris Street, offers hands- on activities and displays, telling the story of the passages and medieval life in the city.

Visitors can also look at a timeline of the city, see artefacts found in the passages and during the Princesshay redevelopment and see a replica cross section of Exeter.

People in wheelchairs, scooters or those who prefer not to take a guided tour will be able to journey through a life-sized mock up of the passages or take a “magic carpet” virtual tour.

Exeter is the only city in the UK to have underground passages of this type.

The mysterious conduits were first built in the 14th century to bring a supply of fresh drinking water into the city, and guided tours have taken place since 1933.

By the early 20th century the vaults were almost forgotten, but in 1935 they achieved Ancient Scheduled Monument status and are now protected by law.

During the Second World War, the vaults became an air raid shelter that could house up to 300 people, protecting them from fire bombs which destroyed much of the city centre.

Source: This is Exeter