As Blackadder turns 30, Richard Curtis talks about the final scene
With a huge tip of the hat to The Telegraph for getting the conversation going, we celebrate the brilliance that started out as simply…The Black Adder some 30 years ago. Premiering on 14 June 1983, the Richard Curtis/Rowan Atkinson creation turned 30 this past Friday at 9:25pm GMT.
Curtis and Atkinson co-wrote series one, with Ben Elton joining Richard Curtis to write series two through four. Voted in 2004 as the second-best British comedy of all-time as part of the Britain’s Best Sitcom series (losing out to Only Fools and Horses), Blackadder was originally conceived while Curtis, Atkinson and producer John Lloyd were working together on Not the 9 O’Clock News. In honor of the occasion, intrepid Telegraph reporters pulled together their 30 best lines from Edmund Blackadder, himself, to celebrate the series’ 30th anniversary. Oh, to be a fly on the wall in that editor’s meeting.
Back in 2010 as part of PBS’ Behind the Britcom: From Script to Screen, we had the great good fortune to spend a few minutes with Richard Curtis, who talked about his and Ben Elton’s good fortune surrounding the filming of the final scene of Blackadder. Some 30 years later, it still is one of the most classic endings to a sitcom ever.
