12 March 2023 , 21:00
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Here’s a turnip for the books, Blackadder buffoon Baldrick can’t wait to read a story for Comic Relief.
Although reading would be tough for Balders, the root veg loving character has, as ever, one of his “cunning plans”.
He can perform a script penned for him by Richard Curtis, who wrote the four series of Blackadder.
Sir Tony Robinson, 76, said it is “wonderful” to be playing Blackadder’s sartorially challenged dogsbody again.
He said Curtis had sent him the script without an explanation so he began reading it to his wife Louise Hobbs.
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“The first time I heard it was when I was actually telling it as a story.
“We just both thought it was hysterically funny. As soon as I started reading it, the character came back. It was wonderful. There was only one way to play it and that’s the way that’s always been in Richard’s head.
“I think it’s really important for all of us to understand what’s going on in the world. Whenever I am summoned by Comic Relief, I come running.”
Curtis, 66, revealed he was bringing back Baldrick “for the first time in 20 years” and the story would be a “marvellous, turnip-based thing”.
Each of the four series of Blackadder, which ran from 1983-89, was set in a different time. A film, Blackadder: Back & Forth, was shown in 2002.
Robinson spent 20 years hosting Channel 4 ’s history programme Time Team.
- Comic Relief is on Friday from 7pm on BBC1.