Ben Elton: "I wouldn’t mind having a crack at Blackadder in an Irish context... I’d like the challenge"

Celebrated for all-time classic sitcoms like The Young Ones and Blackadder, veteran comedy writer Ben Elton has also had his share of ups and downs in his career, with different projects, like his Queen musical We Will Rock You – despite its huge commercial success – falling afoul of the critics, while several of his TV shows have also endured considerable critical flak.

Now 65, the London native has decided to put his fascinating life story under the microscope in his new memoir What Have I Done? It’s a compelling read right from the off, with Elton choosing to open the story with one of the more trying episodes in his life, from 2014.

Back then, he was struggling to get a new sitcom made with the BBC, with one of the sticking points being the casting in the lead role of Rik Mayall, the late great comedy legend who had been Elton’s friend since their student days in Manchester.

Rik Mayall and Ben Elton

“2014 or so was the nadir of my career,” the friendly Elton candidly admits, over tea in the Merrion Hotel. “I’ve got quite a good sense of narrative and storytelling, and I opened with that year because it was the only other time in my life I’d thought about writing an autobiography. I made some notes at the time, but I was in a relatively negative mood, and that’s very unlike me. I’m normally a very positive person; I’m very Chumbawumba – when I get knocked down, I get up again!

“So it was the wrong time. But when I did finally decide 10 years later that I would write an autobiography, I thought back to that time and decided to start it there. It just struck me as an interesting way to get into the story.”

Being at that low ebb, was Elton ruing any previous career decisions he might have made?

“Definitely, I’ve discovered there’s been quite a bit of that in my life,” he considers. “But I’m grateful that I didn’t notice at the time. Because had I done, I would have done things differently – and perhaps not as happily. There have been times when I definitely should have done things differently; I don’t know if you’ve got to the story where I talk about blowing the opportunity with Elton John.

“That’s a good example of me retrospectively seeing that I approached a really rather golden opportunity entirely wrong. But at the time, I just blew it and moved on. And in a way, that’s good. Because here I am, pretty healthy and happy in my personal and professional life. Despite having discovered the number of missed opportunities I’ve had over the years – the times I’ve messed it up and the times they’ve been messed up for me – I have no regrets.

“I’ve lived a happy and fulfilling life; I retain many friendships and I love my wife and family. So I’m sickeningly happy in many ways.”

CAUGHT THE ZEITGEIST

Though these days rightfully acknowledged as one of the greatest ever UK comedy writers – a status enhanced by his more recent hit sitcom Upstart Crow, starring David Mitchell – in the down-slopes of his career, Elton acknowledges he could have been more strategic in his approach.

“Probably the source of most of the criticism I’ve copped has been an irritation with my energy and ubiquity,” he reflects. “Had I thought about it, perhaps I would have thought to be less energetic, although I wouldn’t. But that would have been the solution. If I’d wanted people to stop hating me – well, if I’d wanted people in the media to stop hating me – the answer would have been to shut the fuck up for a few years. And obviously, for someone as loquacious as me, that’s not an option!

“So luckily, I didn’t think about it at the time. Looking back, I can understand why I wound people up – I was just ubiquitous for a number of years. But there’s nothing I can do about that. I was energetic and I did have a lot to say. It wasn’t all brilliant, but quite a lot of it was pretty good. Having already in this interview been with Chumbawumba, I’m now with Edith Piaf – no regrets!”

Ben Elton with David Mitchell and co. on the set of Upstart Crow

Co-written by Elton, Mayall and the latter’s then-girlfriend Lise Mayer, and first broadcast in 1982, The Young Ones – an anarchic sitcom about a group of flat-sharing students – became a major hit for the BBC. In the process, it also caught the zeitgeist and became one of the defining youth culture shows of the decade.

Catapulting Mayall and co-stars Ade Edmondson and Alexei Sayle to the comedy premier league, and creating some enduring pop culture moments – not least the cameo by Motorhead – The Young Ones proved a TV landmark. Was it a special time?

“Yeah it was,” Elton nods. “But it wasn’t uniformly happy. None of the stuff I did in the ’80s was, because everybody was very young and ambitious. There was an awful lot of very big personalities involved in that, Blackadder and Saturday Live. It was a vibrant time, and on the whole, a massively happy time for me, but there was a lot of sadness as well.

“Certainly, in terms of The Young Ones, Rik and I had this amazing symbiosis. We really understood each other, and we were able to make comedy together in a very special way. That was something that started when we were in university in Manchester together, and we had a mutual comic understanding. He was in the third year and I was in the first year, so we weren’t that close, but we became pretty good friends during that year.

“Then he had the chance to do The Young Ones, because Paul Jackson at the BBC was trying to pitch something for him. And Rik came back to me, and it was a very special and wonderful creative relationship we had, during that early period of making The Young Ones. But as I say in the book, it was very quickly to change and divide. Rik had started working with his girlfriend Lisa, and my relationship with him changed, professionally and creatively.”

As popular as The Young Ones was, it turned out Elton was only getting started. In effect, the show was the Definitely Maybe to the (What’s The Story)Morning Glory? of Blackadder. Following an underwhelming first series in 1983 co-written by Richard Curtis and lead star Rowan Atkinson, the latter took a step back to focus on acting, while Curtis drafted Elton to help with the scripts.

Enjoying a Lennon-McCartney type chemistry, Elton and Curtis delivered three classic series of the historical sitcom, each better than the last. With Atkinson as the bitingly witty eponymous character, Blackadder was both an acidic comment on the British class system, as well as a wildly entertaining comedic romp.

In particular, the final series, Blackadder Goes Forth – set in the trenches during World War One – remains a strong contender for greatest sitcom ever. Boasting a galacticos-like assemblage of comedy talent, which included not only Atkinson, Mayall and Edmondson, but also Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and plenty more, it remains endlessly quotable and rewatchable.

Whenever I revisit it, one of the aspects that’s most impressive is how the series weaves in historical references, whilst remaining accessible to a broad audience.

TACKLING IRELAND

“For Adder, the history is so basic that we just knew it,” Ben explains. “I mean, we knew about rotten boroughs. We had a pre-modern curriculum education. Richard’s was private and mine was state, but they both followed a curriculum which was about kings and queens, the Poor Law and the industrial revolution. It was the curriculum that was taught prior to a modern understanding of a more global view, and taking into account shit that wasn’t talked about, like slavery and things like that.

“Well, it wasn’t talked about in an appropriately critical manner, which of course it should be. ‘Glossed over’ would be a better phrase – Irish history was also somewhat glossed over. Although it wasn’t quite as imperial as people think. I mean, we were aware of the crimes of the British when we studied history in the ’60s – it wasn’t quite as ridiculous as people think it was.”

That’s possibly my only note on Blackadder – it would have been amazing to have an episode that touched on Irish history.

“I know, it would have been good,” says Ben. “I’m not sure the Adder tackling Ireland would have been easy. I’m not even sure all the people involved would have shared a similar point of view on it. For instance, I think it would be very hard to make any kind of comedy out of the Famine, even though it goes back beyond any real personal memory of anybody.

“People can pretend they have a real connection, but they don’t. I don’t think anyone can imagine the emotions of anyone beyond their grandparents’ generation. But nonetheless, the brutal tragedy of it remains unresolved. I mean, I think Britain has accepted much of the culpability of its crimes in Ireland, but it’s not entirely resolved. Not least because it remains so complicated. Because the Irish and British people are so entwined, Northern Ireland very deeply so.

“But even more so – I don’t know if the British Isles is a term that’s used anymore – but the two islands of Britain and Ireland are so entwined, that I think it would be… Look, I’d like the challenge. Frankly, I wouldn’t mind having a crack at Blackadder in an Irish context, but it ain’t gonna happen!”

I remember seeing an interview with Richard Curtis where he said that by the final series, it was getting harder to balance everyone’s contributions.

“Well, I’ve talked about my irritation at actors, years after the event, remembering a rehearsal process,” says Elton. “When in fact, they were generously served with scripts that were written towards their talents. And only really remembering the moment when they came up with something they put in. Which is fine, it’s a common irritation between writers and actors. Actors obviously don’t wish to be seen as people who merely parrot lines.

“And writers don’t wish to be seen as people who merely supply material for actors to then develop. Certainly in terms of Blackadder, the scripts were very clear and strong when they arrived in the rehearsal room. You’ll see it described in the book. There was some development in rehearsal, but often what would happen was, there’d be a lengthy discussion about whether the word ‘wibble’ was funny or not.

“There was a slightly over-analytical approach, because it was very Cambridge dominated. John Lloyd, the brilliant producer, was Cambridge, and then there was Stephen and Hugh. There was a slight feeling on the first morning that it was almost like a tutorial, where Richard and I were bringing our essay to be discussed. Which we found quite hard, and I think our subsequent careers have proved that we kind of knew what we were doing.”

While The Young Ones and Blackadder may be seen as his signature achievements, Elton argues convincingly in What Have I Done? that his single greatest line came in the 1995 police sitcom The Thin Blue Line, also starring Atkinson.

LASTING FRIENDSHIPS

Delivered by a characteristically irate Detective Inspector Grim (played by David Haig), the line of dialogue – which can only be described as Joyce meets Roy Chubby Brown – goes: “If you mess this up Fowler, it’s me that’ll get the blame. Your cock up. My arse.”

Elsewhere in a rich and varied career, Elton has worked variously as a stand-up – in which capacity he became widely known on ’80s Channel 4 series Saturday Live – film director, novelist and playwright. A particular high point was the 1996 novel Popcorn, which was also successfully adapted for the stage.

You get the impression he’s content with his achievements. Still, if anything, he takes greater pride in his long-lasting friendships. Still close to Curtis – who recently interviewed him about the book for the Cheltenham Literary Festival – he has also remained friends with the likes of Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie.

Ben Elton with Harry Enfield, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie

“Totally, I saw Hugh recently and Stephen the other night,” says Elton. “They’re still two of my dearest friends. Actually, with Rik, we did grow apart a little bit. We remained friends, but I was much closer to Ade, even when Rik was alive. As I say, Rik’s trajectory meant that, later in his life, he was quite hard to be very close friends with.

“We were good friends, but I didn’t see much of him, because it wasn’t that easy to see Rik. Whereas, my wife and I had a holiday with Ade and Jennifer Saunders just a few weeks ago. No, that generation of the ’80s remain my social circle to this day. There’ve been a few additions, like David Mitchell and his wonderful wife Victoria.

“And Brian and Roger from Queen are dear friends. I mean, the success of my life is the friendships I’ve made, not the shows I’ve made. I’m very glad that the shows have meant something to people, and a few of them failed abysmally, but I’ve never had a friendship that failed.”

• What Have I Done? is out now.