Blackadder movie set in 1960s was once planned

Tony Robinson has revealed that he would have played the role of a rock band drummer called Bald Rick in the film, which would have seen Rowan Atkinson play the illegitimate son of Queen Elisabeth II.

 

Speaking at the Cheltenham literature festival, Robinson said how the film plans almost came to fruition.

 

"We had a discussion of a movie set in the 60s after Blackadder Goes Forth, with Blackadder as the bastard son of Elizabeth II.

 

“Blackadder was going to be in a rock band with a drummer who had no hair who was called Bald Rick."

 

The news of a potential film follows news that Blackadder writer Richard Curtis also had a rough draft of a script for a Christmas special based on the birth of Jesus.

 

A one-off Christmas special called Blackadder in Bethlehem would have seen Rowan Atkinson play the part of Inn Keeper, with Baldrick as his assistant. The plot also had a talking turkey and Three Kings.

 

The script only came to light after Curtis handed it over to historian Jem Roberts while she researched The History of The Black Adder. Roberts describes in the book how Curtis believed the Christmas special might cause a backlash and abandoned the idea ‘for fear it would cause too much offence’.