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Hot news just in.

I emailed writer Richard Curtis regarding the charity sketch that has for a long time been considered a ‘Blackadder’ special. Well, not wanting to be the bearer of bad news, I can confirm that this is NOT a Blackadder sketch. Rowan is simply playing an un-named character and not a member of the Blackadder family.

I’ll remove it from the site soon

As promised, I’ve uploaded Blackadder Rides Again to YouTube in six lovely scrummy parts for you to ingest into your pretty little heads.

Keep an eye out for me - I appear 3 times in the programme; albeit for a total of about 5 seconds. Oh well - I was on BBC1 on Christmas Day and you weren’t.

For those interested in viewing figures, Blackadder Rides Again peaked at 7.9million viewers; making it to number 9 in the Christmas Day viewing, beating The Queen’s Speech.

It’s a really good documentary, and well worth watching (if only to see me in it LOL). Well done to the team at Tiger Aspect for pulling this off. Take a watch and let me know your thoughts.

Hot news just in Blackadder fans; the forthcoming TV documentary Blackadder Rides Again (Christmas Day BBC1 10:30-11:35) will feature some never-before-seen footage…. Here’s what you can expect..

• A small sequence from the Pilot Episode that has never been broadcast on TV
• One or two deleted or extended scenes from Series 1
• Some “clean” footage from the various title sequences of series one (i.e. without the captions)
• One of the specially shot trailers for Blackadder II (although it’s not best quality) *could be what I have on YouTube
• Some studio footage from Blackadder Goes Forth
• Blackadder Goes Forth rehearsal footage
• The raw footage of the “over the top” sequence from the final episode
• And a little, tiny glimpse of some backstage stuff from Blackadder Back And Forth
• There’s also some rare photos I believe

It’s all there to tell the story of the show, so the clips are really there to illustrate what’s being said. Sadly the quality of the studio recording footage from “Potato” wasn’t good enough, so it couldn’t be featured.

Also, my appearance is towards the end of the programme and leads in to the big question of will there be a fifth series.

Just found out that Blackadder Rides Again will be broadcast on BBC1 on Christmas Day at 10:30pm.

Oh, and just found out that I’m going to be in it… I’ve only got a small part but it still requires me to sign a release form.

Consider me excited!

The BBC have kindly put up a clip of the forthcoming Blackadder Rides Again. In this clip Rowan talks about camp Geordies. The clip runs for about 1min.

Thanks to long-standing, much respected Blackadder Hall visitor, nay part-of-the-furniture, John D. for spotting this gem.

Rowan Atkinson has granted his first in-depth interview about his iconic Blackadder role in Tiger Aspect’s second documentary on the classic BBC sitcom.

Atkinson will describe his personal experience of his involvement in the sitcom and its phenomenal success in the 60-minute documentary Blackadder Rides Again, which forms part of BBC1’s Christmas line-up. He will also visit Alnwick Castle, the location of the show’s first series that was titled The Black Adder.

Atkinson did not appear in Blackadder Exclusive: The Whole Rotten Saga, Tiger Aspect’s two-hour retrospective for UKTV channel GOLD, which attracted 341,000 viewers to the digital channel last month. A spokesman for the indie said the BBC1 documentary was an entirely separate production to the UKTV programme, featuring all-new interviews.

Both shows were commissioned to mark the 25th anniversary of the sitcom, which began on BBC2 and ran for three series before switching to BBC1 for Blackadder Goes Forth in 1989.

For the BBC1 show, cast members including Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson, Tim McInnerny and Tony Robinson and writers Richard Curtis and Ben Elton will revisit key iconic moments, costumes and locations.

Tiger Aspect’s director of factual entertainment Ricky Kelehar, who executive produced both shows, said: “We are extremely excited to have persuaded the entire creative team behind this iconic sitcom to appear in the same show for the very first time since they all worked together.

“Many of them have since gone on to become towering talents around the world, including Rowan – who has never before spoken in detail about playing the anti-hero Edmund Blackadder.”

Blackadder Rides Again was commissioned by BBC executive editor, comedy entertainment Katie Taylor and produced and directed by Matt O’Casey. Blackadder producer John Lloyd is programme consultant on the documentary.

As mentioned by me some time ago, Blackadder will be making a return to BBC1 this Christmas, albeit in a documentary celebrating 25 years. The programme will be called “Blackadder Rides Again” - a title which will no doubt confuse viewers; leading them to think that its an actual one-off sitcom special and not a documentary. And I can finally reveal that Rowan Atkinson will also appear.

This article has just been published on the Mirror website.

Blackadder is going forth once more this Christmas… with a oneoff special featuring Rowan Atkinson.

Despite it being one of his best-loved roles, Atkinson has pretty much refused to discuss his character.

But in this 60-minute special, to mark 25 years since the first transmission, he gives his first in-depth interview about Edmund Blackadder.

He says: “The role was almost like an MC, with me delegating the job of entertaining to all these amazing entertainers.

“It was like saying ladies and gentlemen, Mr Tony Robinson, ladies and gentlemen Mr Stephen Fry.”

He also reveals that his initial meeting with co-writer Richard Curtis did not bode well.

He says he “sat in the corner saying nothing” while Curtis recalls that Atkinson was “just a curiously shaped object in the corner”.

Atkinson and other stars also speculate on a possible fifth series of Blackadder - and where it would be set.

Rowan says: “The best idea was Colditz.”

Fry suggests “a prisoner of war camp” and Miranda Richardson likes the idea of a cowboy themed series where she could take on a Calamity Jane type role…

A fifth series anywhere would be a result.

The lovely Stephen Fry is currently filming in Africa filming a documentary series called “Last Chance to See”. And thanks to Stephen’s love of all things technology, especially Apple products (just like me), he’s been keeping the world up to date with his very exciting life via the medium of Twitter (http://twitter.com/stephenfry).

Now, being a bit of a fan of his work, I pop in to see what the great man is up to every so often and today he did a few Blackadder related posts.

He may be somewhere in Africa, but that doesn’t stop a TV crew hunting him down for a chat about Blackadder. At some point before/during/after the interview he was reunited with his Golden Breasts from the episode Beer in series 2. On this he said “Done Bl’adder int. Was presented with golden comedy breasts from series 2. Most affecting. A tear stole into my eye”

Hopefully this will be included in the Christmas special.

At the recent Blackadder talk at the Cheltenham Literature Festival (which I’m currently transcribing), writer Richard Curtis revealed the original title for The Black Adder.

(cue drum rolls)

The historical sitcom was originally called….

(gosh I bet you’re excited now)

King Edmund and His Two Friends

(cue silence and tumble weed)

Not that exciting really is it? But I’m glad they changed it as it would have been a right pain renaming the other series. Although I don’t think Richard and Rowan thought past the pilot episode.

A couple of weeks a go I was lucky enough to attend the recent Blackadder talk at the Cheltenham Literary Festival with Richard Curtis, Tony Robinson and John Lloyd in attendance. I’ll be doing a full write-up of the event soon, but thought I’d let you all know that Tiger Aspect were recording the event for use in a special 25th anniversary documentary to be broadcast on the BBC later in the year (not really much of the year left is there).

I’m wondering if they will actually feature something on the never-aired pilot episode as the guys certainly talked about it at great length at the Literary Festival.