Blackadder: The Cavalier Years
by Richard Curtis & Ben Elton; dir. Mandie Fletcher (BBC, 1988)
This 15-minute Comic Relief special is by far the best of the Blackadder one-offs. Though Stephen Fry’s King Charles is a bit laboured, Rowan Atkinson plays Blackadder Version 2.5 with sardonic, simile-prone precision, ably supported by Tony Robinson as the dogsbody Baldrick.
Saturday Live, Volume One
by Stephen Fry & Hugh Laurie (Redbush, 2015)
A patchy collection of highlights (so-called) from the 1986 TV variety show. Fry and Laurie are first-billed but don’t actually feature that much. Instead, there’s Ben Elton’s high-octane social and political stand-up, protest poems by Craig Charles, and several remarkably unfunny also-rans.
Time and Time Again
by Ben Elton (Bantam, 2014)
An ex-soldier is sent back in time to prevent World War One. Elton’s focus is less on changing history, more on the contrast between today’s spoiled society and the boundless potential of yesteryear… until this perfectly paced paradox novel hits its straps.