Blackadder’s Tony Robinson teases reunion special: ‘Everybody likes a 40th anniversary, don’t they?’

Blackadder star Tony Robinson has teased the show’s potential return for a special episode to mark its 40th anniversary.

Robinson played Baldrick in the BBC comedy series, which aired from 1983 to 1989.

The historical comedy was written by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson and starred Atkinson and Robinson in every series, with comic actors including Tim McInnerny, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Miranda Richardson and Rik Mayall appearing intermittently in other series.

With the show marking its 40th anniversary this year, fans have questioned whether a reunion could be on the cards.

Appearing on Lorraine on Monday (10 April), Robinson was asked if the group were planning to get back together by guest host Christine Lampard.

“All I’m gonna say is, everybody likes to celebrate a 40th anniversary, don’t they?

“So there must be some fresh way we can celebrate our 40th birthday, wouldn’t you think?” he responded.

Last month, Robinson reprised his character of Baldrick to read a “grown-up Bedtime Story” produced by the CBeebies team for Comic Relief.

In an interview with The Independent in 2021, the 76-year-old ruled out the possibility of a reunion in the near future, saying it was “not on the horizon”.

“A lot of [the interest in a reboot] is because it has been incorporated into the curriculum,” Robinson explained. “Another advantage is that it wasn’t set at the time it was written, which was also helpful for Shakespeare and Brecht.”

However, he added that a rebooted version would have to look different, as “the most diverse thing in Blackadder was its title”.

Last week, Blackadder ranked highly in The Independent’s list of the 50 greatest TV episodes of all time, for the final episode of Blackadder Goes Forth, “Goodbyeee”.

You can see where Blackadder placed on the list, compiled by The Independent’s culture team, here.