Ben Elton isn't 'planning' to mark Blackadder's 40th anniversary

Ben Elton is “not even remotely planning” anything for the 40th anniversary of ‘Blackadder’.

The 64-year-old comedian wrote the classic BBC sitcom with Richard Curtis has no plans to mark the show's 1983 debut although he still sees the cast like Hugh Laurie, Rowan Atkinson and Stephen Fry as they are “still really close friends”.

He told Metro newspaper's Sixty Seconds column: “No, not even remotely, but I see them. I had dinner with Hugh and his beautiful wife Jo a few days ago. We’re all still really close friends. It was quite tough at the time, it wasn’t always a lovefest; we were all friends, but much younger and a bit chippier. But now I think we can all sit back and say, ‘We had a hit with that, didn’t we?’”

Meanwhile, Ben called last year’s one-off revival of ‘Friday Night Live’ - which began life as ‘Saturday Live’ in the 80s - “one of the best nights of” his professional life after he reflected on its legacy on the UK comedy scene.

He said: “It was one of the best nights of my career. I loved every second of it. When we started doing ‘Saturday Live’ in 1986. I reckon there were three regular comedy clubs in London, and everywhere else in the country, not one. But by the time we finished in 1989, every time in the country had a pub with a regular comedy night, and big cities had their own designated comedy club. We did that, and Channel 4 did that.”

The ‘Upstart Crow’ star admitted he was “begging” Channel 4 to bring back the comedy show permanently.

Ben said: “If you’d call me being outside the offices of Channel 4 on my knees begging ‘discussions’ on my knees then yes, we’ve had ‘discussions’. I’ve made it clear I’m super available. I think they’re thinking about it. So if you’ve got any influence at all…”