Hugh Laurie played the dim, chinless Prince George in Blackadder, and two decades later he was the most-watched leading man on American television as Dr Gregory House. That is the kind of company this was.

Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis created it for BBC One in 1983, and Ben Elton came in from the second series. Four series carried the same scheming Edmund from a medieval castle to the Tudor court, a Regency drawing room and finally a trench in 1917.

Six of the eight faces in this video are still with us. Atkinson, 71, trained as an electrical engineer before Mr Bean made him known on every continent. Sir Tony Robinson, Baldrick, turned 80 in August and spent twenty years digging up Britain on Time Team. Miranda Richardson, the spoilt Queenie, is 68 and has two Oscar nominations to her name. Sir Stephen Fry, both Melchetts, is 69. Tim McInnerny, the hopeless Lord Percy, has just turned 70. Laurie is 67.

We lost two within eight days of each other in June 2014: Rik Mayall, whose Lord Flashheart stole every scene he walked into, at 56, and Patsy Byrne, Nursie, at 80.

To my mind the final episode, Goodbyeee, is the bravest ending any British sitcom has attempted. A comedy that had spent six years being gloriously silly sent its characters over the top and let the laughter stop. Nobody who saw it in 1989 has forgotten that last shot of the poppies.

Which series do you go back to?

Our narrator is an AI voice. The ages above were checked at the end of September 2026.