Well then. This one’s a little bit out of left field.
Much beloved and highly revered BBC comedy series Blackadder last aired on TV screens in November of 1989, closing the inventive and exceptionally well conceived series with one of the most memorable and poignant final scenes ever put together by a comedy series.
Srsly, you’d need a heart of stone to not be moved by that.
But like most things in the modern age of TV and film, just because it’s off the air, doesn’t mean it’s dead.
Tony Robinson, who played Baldrick throughout the show’s four seasons, let slip that there might be life in the show yet.
That is, if they can actually afford to pay Hugh Laurie these days.
Speaking to the London Sun newspaper, Robinson – now both 69 years old, and a Knight – stated that he’d spoke to the rest of the cast, who all expressed an enthusiasm for a new series.
“I do think a new series of Blackadder is on the cards. I have spoken to virtually all the cast about this now. The only problem is Hugh’s fee. He’s a huge star now – or so he’d like to think.”
Laurie, of course, found fame in the US as the cranky but brilliant doctor House.
Robinson isn’t idealistic about any new version of the show, stating an awareness of the dangers involved with reviving a series viewed through rose tinted lenses.
“Expectations for a new series will be high because people not only remember the original; they remember who they were when it was on. It’s a big danger.”
The original series had each season set in a different time period – so in that regard the new series wouldn’t be difficult to coordinate creatively. Whether the rest of the cast – which included Robinson, Laurie, alongside Rowan Atkinson and Stephen Fry, as well as the late Rik Mayall who passed away in 2014 – remains to be seen.
