Blackadder star Sir Tony Robinson believes Rowan Atkinson will be involved in the show’s Comic Relief return “in one form or another”.
Series creator Richard Curtis confirmed this week that the sitcom would return for a charity sketch, albeit without his co-creator and Rowan, who played the title character Edmund Blackadder. However, Tony has now revealed that the script was written for his character, the hapless servant Baldrick, and stressed that Rowan “always contributes to comic relief”.
He said: “This happens to be just a script for Baldrick, but Rowan always contributes to Comic Relief. I’m sure he’ll be involved in one form or another.”
Tony revealed that just one day after they met again at an event, Richard messaged him with a script for the Comic Relief sketch and the star jumped at the chance to reprise his iconic role.
He said: “It was quite extraordinary. It happened very quickly. Last week I was at a posh event at Claridges where they were celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Radio Times covers and I went there to collect an award for a cover that Blackadder had done all those years before.
“Very early the next morning I was awakened by a text from Richard Curtis saying, ‘Nice to see you’. It also contained the script for a play Baldrick was going to do and he asked, ‘Would you do it?’
“For me, that was extraordinary. This is a character I haven’t played in 25 years, and suddenly I was given this beautifully crafted script and said, ‘Yeah, yeah, try to stay away from that!'”
Tony believes a new season of Blackadder is probably unlikely because people may not find it as “warmhearted” as the original episodes, but he doesn’t rule it out completely.
Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, he said: “The argument is always that no matter how good a new series is, the people who watch it are not in the same frame of mind and emotional state as they were when they watched the first series.”
“They wouldn’t think it was that great, they wouldn’t think it was that good. Even if it was absolutely great, they’d say, ‘It’s not like the old show, is it?’
“I think that’s one of the main reasons why no one has ever seriously considered writing another series.
“But who knows, who knows? It’s not up to me, it’s up to Richard and Ben (Elton).”
Earlier this week, Richard confirmed that the show would return for the Comic Relief sketch.
He said: “For the first time in 20 years, Baldrick will be making some sort of appearance.
“We are making plans for that now and I think there will be something great beet-based with Tony Robinson back in action. I’m looking forward to it.”
When asked if Rowan would appear in the Comic Relief special, Richard replied: “No (laughs). Rowan is far too serious to do something like that.”
Blackadder originally ran for four seasons and two specials from 1983 to 1989, and another special, Blackadder: Back and Forth, aired in 1999.
