00x05 - Richard Curtis interview

Episode transcripts for the TV show "Blackadder". Aired: 15 June 1983 – 2 November 1989.*
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An out-of-favor son tries to win the approval of his father, the king.
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00x05 - Richard Curtis interview

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I think all great sitcoms -
the sitcoms that I love

Are completely unique.

I think "I Love Lucy" is unique.

And I think the relationship

Between d*ck van d*ke
and Mary Tyler moore was unique.

I think the people they invented
in the Cheers bar were unique

And "Larry Sanders" is unique.

I would hate to say, "Oh, all
the American ones are the same,"

Because I think they're miles apart.

There's just a million miles

Between "Friends"
and "Larry Sanders".

The same way it would be
ridiculous to say that

"Yes, Prime Minister" had much to
do with "Ab Fab" or "Father Ted".

I think that we have got these

Lucky little nobbles of funny stuff

And I don't think it matters
what country they come from.

One of the laws of
newspapers seems to be

That every six months
one has to write

An article about
the death of sitcom,

And I think that - I think
they're all nonsense

Because as far as I can see

There have been about three
great sitcoms in Britain

And about three great
sitcoms in America

Every ten years.

And the pattern is
pretty well the same.

I can't imagine what they are,

But I think every decade you get
a few that people adore.

And with any luck
it will stay the same.

But now we've got some good sitcoms,

Now in America we've got
some good sitcoms,

And I think as many
as ever there were.

I'm very passionate
about Larry Sanders

Which a very strange, uncomfortable
sitcom with no laughter,

But is brilliantly funny
and seems to drift off

Into a direction you
don't expect it to

And be full of strange sadnesses
just around the corner

With all the major characters.

And I loved "Father Ted"

For the sweetness of the characters.

Apart from the bloke in the chair,

The two main characters
are just trying so hard

To be nice to each other,

And all of those
characters are so thick.

A great joy.

"Fawlty towers", it's
the greatest farce

Ever written in
the English language.

I think there might be
some good French farces,

But there's not been
anything that perfect

In the history of
English literature.

I mean, it's just so funny.

Sitcom plots are very
gorgeous to create.

You don't have plots and sketches.

And film plots are
really dull to get right,

Such a long time, such a huge curve,

The characters have to be so deep.

The thing I miss about sitcom

Is not writing funny lines
or writing funny scenes,

But just devising a
perfect little circle.

That is the fun of the genre.

The only advice I give to people
about writing sitcoms is

If they possibly can,
don't write a first episode.

For the last three
series of Blackadder

We never wrote a first episode.

We wrote a final episode
and five other ones

So that you could pick
a good one to go first

Because on the whole, first
episodes of sitcoms are the worst

Because you don't establish
the situation you're going for,

You establish the situation

Before the one you were going for.

And that is the sadness,

That most sitcoms are reviewed

On the back of their first episode,

Which is the one where the
old flatmate moves out

And the new flatmate moves in,

And there should be a rule

That they're only reviewed
after three of them.

So that you kind of find out
what the joke's meant to be.

I've liked those
sitcoms that I like.

I find it alarming
that people are so keen

To write about sitcoms
that they don't like

Rather than celebrate
sitcoms they do.

I think we were still in love
with how "Fawlty Towers" had been,

I would imagine that "Yes,
Prime Minister" was around

And being fantastic in those days,

So what I was trying to do was

Write a sitcom like
the ones I liked

And not an att*ck
on those I didn't like.

And "Fawlty Towers"
was a huge barrier

To writing anything in those days

Because it had just been so good,

As it turns out, the most
popular tv program ever.

After a while we decided that
the one thing we could do

Is write a historical sitcom
which wouldn't remind everyone

How weak we were in comparison
to "Fawlty Towers".

I wonder if other people
would admit to this,

I think the most difficult
thing about all sitcoms

Is that you write so hard

And you get your little series
of six as perfect as you can,

And in retrospect it seems to me

That every sitcom I've
ever written, out of six,

Two are good, two are not
bad and two are awful.

And no matter how hard you try
and no matter how well you do,

I certainly know which is which.

In all the Blackadder
and "Vicar of Dibley" series

They're just - some
of them don't work.

Plots aren't made in heaven.

BBC cancelled the Blackadder
after the first series,

Saying we weren't allowed
to do the second series

Because it was unsuccessful
and not funny enough.

Then I met Ben and we talked
about the fact that

It would have been possible
to do Blackadder

In a really traditional
studio context.

So that's what we did.

There wasn't any outside filming,

Apart from the credit sequence

In the Elizabethan one.

I don't think there
is in any of them.

So that was a new
challenge, new fun,

And it came out much more,
as it were, like a play.

Some sitcom writers sit together
in the same room.

Ben and I never sat
together in the same room

Because whenever we sat
together in the same room

We found so many subjects that
were more interesting than ...

During those years

We were obsessed by Madonna,
Kylie and Madness,

These were our three,
so we only talked about pop.

We'd get to the end
of the meeting and go,

"God, we haven't mention
the Blackadder once!"

And then we'd go away again.

So this was the first
sort of computerized writing.

I'd give him a disk,
he'd give me the disk back.

With this one rule
that you weren't allowed

To put back in something that
the other person had cut,

On the grounds that

If you tell a joke at dinner
and nobody laughs,

You don't say, "Oh, no, wait,

"it was absolutely hilarious,
I'll tell it to you again."

You have to accept the fact
that it hasn't worked.

So even though sometimes
he and I both believed

Rather good stuff got thrown out,

It did lead to a
harmonious writing,

Where you never went backwards,
you always went forwards.

Ben gave it a certain
linguistic wildness

And a certain naughtiness
and wickedness,

Which I very quickly
started to imitate,

But I think his
initial contribution

To stick the writer
of "The Young Ones"

Into a historical sitcom

Probably made it only able
to happen when it did,

And one of the things that's

Sort of cheeky and
pleasant about it

Is that it's obviously
written by someone

Very much of our time

Even though it is
consistently historical.

I don't think we ever had any
anachronistic jokes,

That was our big promise,
that we wouldn't have any jokes,

"Hello mr. Fordman,
meet mr. Mason."

All those jokes.

I think I like the
ludicrous lavishness

Of the words in Blackadder,

I think in the end that's
what I particularly enjoyed.

I think the relationship between
Rowan and Tony developed

To be a good, fun, traditional
sitcom relationship.

I think the fact that
it was historical

Meant that it was pretty to look at

And that things were happening in half
hours which didn't usually happen,

People were being beheaded,
people were invading nations,

People were dying at w*r,

So I think all of that added up

To a slightly different
brew to a lot of shows.

We were very strongly advised,

We were very strongly advised
not to do Blackadder.

We were told that the two things
that absolutely never worked ...

And everybody tried ...

Were sitcoms set in heaven
and historical sitcoms.

But we ignored the advice.

To some extent
Blackadder is a joke

About the history that we were
taught when we were young.

When series , for which we
did no research, was finished,

I gave Ben as a birthday present

The ladybird book of
Elizabethan history

Which had chapters,
of which we'd covered .

It was just all the
little bits of nonsense

We'd remembered from school
that we'd included in it.

The reason we did the
historical one was two-fold.

We did it because we were
scared of "Fawlty Towers"

And I couldn't imagine
putting Rowan in a jacket

And being anything but
embarrassed by how much

Less funny he was
than Basil Fawlty,

And second because we liked
the idea of big plots.

We liked the idea
of death and carnage

And kings and princes and chaos

Rather than just writing
about your car breaking down.

As it went on Blackadder chand
between the st and nd series,

But talking about the nd,
rd and th series,

There was enormous joy
in the plots of them.

There was an enormous joy

In trying to set up
some big huge problem.

And there Were big huge probls
of kings getting married

And getting jobs they
weren't suitable for

And sailing around the world
and that kind of stuff.

And trying to turn
a big plot corner

In half an hour was a lot of fun.

And cracking as many stupid
jokes as we possibly could.

It was a lot of fun
working with Ben.

We never sat in a room,
we never agonized about it.

All that would happen is I would
send Ben a disk with my first go

And then he'd send it back

And I'd get to laugh
at all his jokes.

Then I'd cross out all the
things I didn't like of his

And mine that I'd gotten bored
with and then I'd pass it back.

It was a great pleasure.

It was like getting
funny letters from a friend.

I think it was by chance
that Blackadder and

Ended with Blackadder
getting k*lled,

We couldn't think
of any other way out.

But series we did it
very much on purpose because

We were very keen
to do world w*r I,

But it's recent history,

And terrible and tragic
recent history.

So our deal with ourselves
was that we would do it

As long as we would k*ll
all the characters

Which is actually what
happened in the first world w*r.

It was full of wonderful clashes

Of class and strangenesses
in the trenches,

But the men did go
over the top and die

And we felt that or hoped
that if we did do that

Really at the end of the episode

It would not be too disrespectful.

And would actually represent

Some of the tragedy
of the first world w*r.

So that was on purpose.

Yeah I think...

The thing about Blackadder

Was that Ben knows
a lot about history

And was much more aware
of the history than I was,

And so we were quite
interested in history,

Even though we didn't
research it properly.

Therefore it seemed to us
a completely logical end

To a sitcom about the w*r,

Rather than a brave
or heretical thing to do.

I think that's where
the history and the comedy

Formed an interesting combination.

The first series we did
because we were looking for

A place full of medieval
head-hacking and stuff,

And we sort of found it
somewhere in the th century.

The nd one, we decided
to make it a proper sitcom

In a sitcom studio.

And I think therefore
we were looking

For something courtly and confined

And we knew more about Elizabeth
the first than other eras

And there was also something
vaguely Shakespearean about it,

Which we liked.

Then I think we picked
the rd one because

It was another famous area
of English drama,

I think restoration comedy
is what that reminded us of.

And perhaps there had been a series

Called Prince Regent or something
on the telly which we remembered.

Then series , I think
we'd thought long and hard,

And by that time we'd started to
define what made Blackadder work

And the idea of a
very confined space

Where he was up against
a huge machine above him

That he could kick against,
but never defeat.

So we had sort of learned
the formula then.

We've got other ideas we
might do one day in our 's.

We always found when
we did the sitcoms

That the fewer extra
characters we had

And the fewer extra places we went,

For some reason,
the funnier they were.

The fact that Blackadder
was so confined,

More than any of the other series,

Meant that in the end

The relationships between
the people are more satisfying.

Baldrick is actually
a tragic figure,

I think all the way through it

Because he really does appear
to represent the working man

Who's being really
screwed over by the system.

And george is such a touching
figure all the way through

That I think that it
being really confined

Lead to the inter-relationships

Being more touching and interesting.

Partly because the
plots were less big.

You always had on your
mind whether or not

Something could lead to a plot.

So if you were thinking about,

Particularly in
the Elizabethan one,

You would think there were

Potatoes or puritans
or there were executioners

And from that you would then
think, is there any little plot

I can do about an execution
or a voyage of discovery.

And that was just part
of what was on your mind

During the or months
that you were writing it,

And I don't know how
the plots worked from there,

How we got them to work,

But it was just one of the
jobs that you joyfully did.

When we got the character
of Blackadder right,

Which it wasn't really right
in the first series,

We were using this thing that
Rowan does extraordinarily,

Which is just irony and
sarcasm and distance ...

He did a great sketch
as a schoolmaster,

A great one as a
father of the bride

Who was being incredibly rude
about his new son-in-law ...

And so you kind of knew
that you could be

As rude as you liked,
as scornful as you liked,

And that Row would
be funny doing it.

So that was a joy.

When we did the first series
we had huge cinematic dreams

And so we got ourselves
technically in a dodgy situation

Which was that there
was no audience,

And we'd always worked
in front of an audience,

Always recorded in
a studio or out on film,

So we didn't quite know
what we were doing.

We realized on the
very first day's filming

That we didn't know
what Rowan's character was.

We had a huge argument
on day one whether or not

He should play him as
a real aristocratic idiot,

And finally we decided that

That would just mean that
lots of it didn't work,

So I think Rowan plays rather

A lot of characters
during the series

So we hadn't really defined that.

We hadn't defined the
relationship with Baldrick.

So I think there are some things
about it which are fun

And some bits of the
script which are funny

And some sort of hugenesses
that are rather sort

Of gorgeous in terms of witches
and bishops and stuff.

But we hadn't really worked out
how to do the sitcom job yet.

We considered the
nd series a success

Because the BBC
commissioned a rd series,

Because after the st one they
hadn't commissioned a nd one.


As always it took time to get

Into the public domain, as it were.

The rd series and the th
won B.A.F.T.A. Awards,

But the nd series, which is
in some ways the best,

I don't think even got nominated

Because it takes people time

To realize they've liked something.

I suppose I love moments
of unexpected emotion.

I think almost my
favorite bits are

Percy being very, very wounded
about not being asked

To be the best man

And attempting to hide
his emotions of excitement

When he thinks he's been asked

And of disappointment when it turns
out someone else has been asked.

I love that.

The final episode
of series I love,

But I like the middle chunk

Where they're reminiscing about
what their lives were like,

Which seems to me
something we'd never done,

To look back over our characters.

My one great regret
about "Fawlty Towers"

Is I think it's a shame
that we never had any -

I wish he'd written
one episode where someone

Who knew them when
they were young,

When they got engaged
or when they got married,

Someone who brought back the past,

Because those characters were
so frozen in their middle age.

It would have wonderful
to get a glimpse

Of what they'd been like.

The guy who he turned down
when he employed Manuel.

So I loved that episode of .

And in ...

And I love, in series ...

Some of the guest people
did fantastic performances.

I think Rik Mayall's performance
in series was fantastic,

The most energetic
that I've ever seen.

And Jim Broadbent's performance

In series as
the Spanish interpreter

Has the weirdest inflection
you've ever heard on television

And is absolutely gorgeous.

Then I think there's a good scene
with a squirrel in series .

We finished the part for
Rik Mayall as Flashheart,

And he didn't perform a
single line that we wrote.

I gave it to him and
he said, "You ... hmphh."

So we had to push
and push to give him

This series of crude,
innuendo one-liners

Which I so adore.

Certainly Miranda Richarson's
contribution was extraordinary.

We auditioned a lot
of people to do her part.

We couldn't get anyone
who didn't either do it

As a slow ranger or as a
sort of -year-old girl,

And then Miranda did this
insane, undefinable thing,

But nothing that we'd
written really suited it,

It was so much better than
anything we had written.

So we had to rewrite the whole part

For the sort of oblique
weirdness of her performance.

I think that one of the things

That was educational for me
in the end of the Blackadder

Is how close you can
bring comedy to tragedy,

And Four Weddings and a Funeral

Which was originally called
Four Weddings and a Honeymoon

And had an awful
bit with Hugh Grant

Padding around a beach,
hiding behind notice boards,

Trying to watch Andie McDowell.

In that I found out
that you could go:

Comedy, comedy, comedy
and then straight into

The tragedy and then
straight out of it again.

I think one of the lessons
of Blackadder

Is how far you can push it.

I think there's one serious line,

I think Rowan says,
"Good luck, chaps."

But until then we tried to cr*ck
jokes until the very last moment

And yet still were
able to be serious.

And I'd think that seriousness
and comedy are very ...

They're not very far apart.

They don't need to be.

If you're being funny you're
then allowed to be tragic

And if you're being tragic,

You're definitely
allowed to be funny,

Shakespeare does it,

I say all the time, but twice.

There were lots of reasons we
didn't write any more Blackadders

And we've got a few up our sleeve.

We were going to write one set in
the 's called the Blackadder

Where Rowan was
going to play a seedy

Manager/exploiter/
photographer/pop musician.

And it was going to transpire that

It was Baldrick who'd
sh*t president Kennedy

While playing with a
g*n in a Dallas hotel

Waiting for The Blackadder
to give a dodgy concert.

But one of the main reasons
we didn't do it again

Was because we found we
were parodying ourselves.

We were so aware we'd
left a lot of time

And so aware of the structures
that we'd created,

Such as, "You are as stupid as,"

And "I would rather do this
than..." and all of those,

That we got to the point where

It wasn't so much coming out of us

As us thinking, "What
normally happens is..."

I think the moment you start
following a ground plan

Rather than writing
your own jokes

You're probably in trouble.

It's up to other people to judge,

As it were, the
curve of your career.

I think you write the next
thing you want to write,

And the next thing I wanted to
write after Blackadder was -

I lived in a village in
the country for years,

I was intrigued by that,

I was interested
in women vicars,

I wanted to write something
about someone nice,

And so that was what I wrote.

Maybe if I write another sitcom

It will be gorgeously radical.

I was very keen in
"The Vicar of Dibley"

To write about the
difficulty of being nice.

I don't think there are very
many nasty people in the world.

I think most of us try and be nice.

Most of the comedy in our lives
comes from the awful problem

Of how to be polite about
dreadful things that happen,

How to be nice to your relatives,

How to be friendly, how
not to be rude to guests,

To try and be pleasant to people.

I think that is just as
funny an idea as somebody

Like in Blackadder who
just shouts at everybody.

So I was trying to find someone
who was definitively nice,

In fact compelled to be nice

And the point about being a vicar

Is you have to be nice
to everybody, it's your job.

So that was one of
the reasons we did it.

The second...

The Vicar of Dibley was probably
the only political act

Of my life insofar as I
went to a registry wedding

Where a woman was officiating

And it struck me
as being so correct

That a woman should do it.

I was just % convinced

That women vicars were a good idea

Because so many women in my life

Have been so good at dealing with

The complex emotional things
that people go through

And that's exactly what a vicar
should be able to deal with.

So I was keen to write something

Which just showed a woman vicar

Because I thought if other people
had a fictional experience

They would suddenly realize
that is completely right,

It's completely natural.

I was eager to get something
out into the marketplace

That made this common currency

And so people would have something
to refer to and would say,

"You're mad to say there's
something wrong with female vicars,

"because even though
that's a silly comedy,

"it makes sense
emotionally to me."

I've done two things that
I mourn like lost children.

One of them was the Madness sitcom

That Ben and I tried to write.

We did a pilot, we
were very keen on that.

We did a pilot, but it
wasn't a very good pilot

Because it only lasted minutes

And it was filmed
on a very grey day.

But it would have been a joy to do

What they did with The
Monkees with Madness.

Unfortunately our pilot
was nothing as good

As one of their videos
so it didn't come off.

I'm sorry that that didn't happen.

I did once write and film
the pilot of something called

The Chip Show.

Which was a -

Not a sitcom, but a show
set in an Italian restaurant.

It was called the Chip show
because it was very cheap,

And Cheap and Chip were meant
to be how it sounded

If you said it in
an Italian accent.

It starred Miriam Margolyes, Jim Broad-
bent, Tim Mcinnery and Tony Robinson

And should have been fantastic,

But we filmed it without an audience

And it was just completely weird.

I wish I had the pilot still

Because I'm sure there were
some good jokes in there.

When sitcoms are lovely,

They are the most perfect
form and length of television.

I'm a great lover of television.

Something that lasts half an hour

And makes you laugh is so perfect,

It doesn't interfere with
the flow of your evening,

You can still talk to your family,

And as a sort of injection
of joy into your life,

I don't think you
can do much better.

Over the years, watching
"Fawlty Towers", "The Young Ones,"

Recently watching "Larry Sanders"

Just gives me so much pleasure.
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