{"id":148882,"date":"2025-06-01T07:26:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T07:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/148882\/"},"modified":"2025-06-01T07:26:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T07:26:10","slug":"rowan-atkinson-slams-bbcs-1million-blackadder-debut-as-dreary-to-watch-tv-radio-showbiz-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/148882\/","title":{"rendered":"Rowan Atkinson slams BBC’s \u00a31million Blackadder debut as ‘dreary to watch\u2019 | TV & Radio | Showbiz & TV"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rowan Atkinson has slammed the original Blackadder series as \u201cdreary to watch\u201d \u2014 despite the BBC<\/a> splashing a then-unprecedented \u00a31 million budget on the six-episode medieval comedy<\/a>. The first incarnation of the hit sitcom, titled The Black Adder, aired in 1983 and looked more like a lavish costume drama than a sitcom \u2014 with extravagant location shoots, elaborate sets, and high production values. But behind the scenes, the cast and creators admit the big budget didn\u2019t buy big laughs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first series was odd, it was very extravagant,\u201d Atkinson confessed in a behind-the-scenes documentary. \u201cIt cost a million pounds for the six programmes\u2026 [which] was a lot of money to spend\u2026 It looked great, but it wasn\u2019t as consistently funny as we would have liked.\u201d The show\u2019s producer John Lloyd also reflected on the overblown production. \u201cA colleague commented at the time that the series \u2018looks a million dollars, but cost a million pounds\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He admitted that while they were proud of the result then, it\u2019s telling that Blackadder\u2019s Christmas Carol features flashbacks to all other series \u2014 except the first.<\/p>\n

Shot partially at real castles, The Black Adder was a costly gamble by the BBC<\/a>, and although it introduced characters like Prince Edmund and Baldrick, most of the season one cast \u2014 including Brian Blessed, Elspet Gray and Robert East \u2014 never returned for future instalments.<\/p>\n

Only Atkinson, 70, and Tony Robinson (Baldrick) carried on to become series regulars, with Tim McInnerny joining from the second series onwards. Brian Blessed, who played King Richard IV, later revealed the role was one of his favourites \u2014 though he never appeared again.<\/p>\n

The series also underwent major character changes. In the pilot, Prince Edmund was far more cunning and sarcastic, but executive interference resulted in a version where he was more bumbling \u2014 a move many fans felt dulled the show\u2019s edge.<\/p>\n

Despite the rocky start, the franchise went on to become one of Britain\u2019s most beloved comedies.<\/p>\n

Later series introduced iconic characters such as Queenie (Miranda Richardson), Lord Melchett (Stephen Fry), and George (Hugh Laurie), with increasingly sharp scripts and a tighter, cheaper format that relied more on wit than wigs.<\/p>\n

Stephen Fry and Tony Robinson later described the making of Blackadder Goes Forth as fraught with tension, with cast and writers frequently rewriting scripts and clashing over direction.<\/p>\n

But it ultimately delivered what\u2019s now considered one of the most powerful sitcom finales ever, with its haunting final scene of soldiers charging into no-man\u2019s land.<\/p>\n

Several spin-offs and sequel ideas \u2014 including Blackadder in Thatcher\u2019s Cabinet, The Red Adder set during the Russian Revolution, and even a superhero parody \u2014 were floated but never made, as the team feared a fifth series could never match the acclaim of Goes Forth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rowan Atkinson has slammed the original Blackadder series as \u201cdreary to watch\u201d \u2014 despite the BBC splashing a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3937],"tags":[192,63728,63726,63731,63732,63730,2197,77,63727,63729,382,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-148882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-bbc","9":"tag-bbc-budget","10":"tag-blackadder","11":"tag-blackadder-bbc-budget","12":"tag-blackadder-bbc-rowan","13":"tag-blackadder-rowan-atkinson","14":"tag-comedy","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-rowan-atkinson","17":"tag-sitcom-production","18":"tag-tv","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114606924417135242","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}