TV veterans Peter Fincham and Jon Plowman talk to the writers, producers, and performers behind Britain’s biggest TV comedy hits, and hear the inside story of how they brought their programmes to the screen.

In this episode, John Lloyd and Sir Tony Robinson discuss the modern comedy masterpiece that is Blackadder.

The duo reveal the endless problems they had when making the first series ("the show that looked a million dollars and cost a million pounds”), and the importance of failure. They also open up about the tensions amongst the team, the “ladder of stupidity” in Blackadder’s world, and the real story behind that famous final scene.

With Peter and Jon as our guides, discover how the John and Tony went about making a great bit of TV comedy.

Who came up with it?

How did it get written?

We’ll talk about the commissioning, the casting, and the reception the show received when it first aired.

We’ll do our very best to winkle out some backstage secrets straight from the horse’s mouth, as we hear the unvarnished truth from the people who were there, and who put these iconic shows on the telly.

Original Blackadder clips written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton

Producer: Owen Braben

Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Expectation Productions, and first broadcast in June 2020. Show less