Although Blackadder ended in 1989, it’s highly regarded as one of Britain’s most iconic sitcoms.
The BBC comedy shot many of its actors into superstardom including Rowan Atkinson, who went on to famously portray Mr Bean and Johnny English.
During a recent appearance at the BFI and Radio Times Television Festival, the 69-year-old reflected on the mock-historical series.
Rowan revealed a treatment was once written for the much-loved comedy to be set during the Russian Revolution titled Redadder.
He shared: “There was a plan 20 years ago that got nowhere which was called Redadder which I quite liked.
“It was set in Russia in 1917 and Blackadder and Baldrick were working for the Tsar.
“They had blue stripes around their caps and then the Revolution happened and Rik Mayall unsurprisingly was playing Rasputin.”
Rowan explained: “And after the Revolution they are in exactly the same office and they have red caps. And it was quite a good idea and it was filmic in scale.”
However, the series concluded after four seasons with a memorable moment in its finale, titled, Goodbyeee.
The episode was a poignant tribute to soldiers of the war, creating a powerful lasting impression that almost didn’t happen.
Although the cast filmed their dramatic last moments being gunned down, the footage was so badly shot that it was almost unusable.
As a result, the director was forced to take a different approach and use a field of poppies that appears to reflect the deaths of soldiers.
David Sims wrote for The A.V. Club: “We don’t see them brutally cut down with machine gun fire (the set they’re running across is hardly pristine and the decision was made to cut away from it as quickly as possible), but the field of poppies is such a quietly devastating image in its own right.”
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