Tony Robinson reveals Rowan Atkinson's idea for a Blackadder revival
"It would have to be something crazily different for it to work"
"I’m often reported as saying there will be another series of Blackadder," says Tony Robinson – and he's right. Rumours have abounded for a while that the actor and writer will join the likes of Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry for a reunion of the beloved 80s sitcom so perhaps it was inevitable that he would be asked about its future during a session at the Cheltenham Literature Festival.
Quizzed on his comments last year suggesting a new series of Blackadder was "on the cards", Robinson failed to fan the flames, instead stating: "I have absolutely no idea if there will be another series. I do know that a number of people in Blackadder have argued, 'Look, we went out on this really fantastic high... even if we did one that was 50% better than Blackadder Goes Forth, everyone who saw it would say it’s not as good as it was in the old days', and I think there’s a great deal of truth in it."
But he did add... "I suspect if we did something else it would have to be completely different – it would have to be something that wasn’t a six-part series, it would have to be something that would so break the mould that people wouldn’t make those kind of comparisons."
What could that be, we hear you ask? Well, luckily for us the cast do meet "once or twice a year" and it seems the question on the tip of our tongue is one that is discussed among the group.
In fact, it sounds like Atkinson is at the forefront of the team's creative brainstorming, coming up with an idea so bonkers Robinson just had to share it...
"One of the last times we met [Rowan] said to me, 'Do you know what would be great for Blackadder would be if we took over the Royal Tournament one day so you could have all these tanks and all these field guns being assembled and re-assembled and there would be a Blackadder narrative going on throughout it with huge screens like at Adele concerts at the same time.'"
"It would have to be something that crazily different for it to work," Robinson added, but when pushed on whether he was ruling out a reunion his reply was frustratingly cryptic: "I'm not saying it's in, I'm not saying it's out."
Make of that what you will.
Authors
