00:11on the first series the thing I remember really clearly is the time and the passion that was
00:17spent over the script the detail every tiny detail cabbage versus cauliflower what's funnier
00:25the name of Baldrick the name of Edmund plus the scale of it you're never being frightened of
00:32something massively ambitious never being frightened to change turn around and take the
00:36whole production upside down everybody having to change everything because they thought they
00:41could find something better and funnier and it was a fantastic lesson to learn that you just
00:48keep going you never think I've got that now that's quite funny it's got to be even funnier
00:57which smell of persuasion with Frank Finley I made a terrible mistake that like that on that and it
01:03was Friday night and my one of my other responsibilities was clearing up after this and making sure everyone
01:09had gone and I thought that Frank Finley had gone home with one with the person that normally picked
01:14him up and in fact he hadn't and we he was left behind on this snowy location it was really
01:21snowy
01:22I was already back in the hotel having a brandy and some of the makeup people came in and they'd
01:28stopped they'd found him wandering in his costume on the way back to the hotel and I thought my career
01:40was over
01:41around just inhabited the character and Rome became Edmund Blackadder so that you I went to riding lessons I
01:51took him for when he was learning to ride and he you could see him becoming Edmund just learning how
01:58to
01:58think like Edmund the discussion of the codpiece I remember a lot of discussions about sizes of
02:06codpiece and what was the best size and who should have the best codpiece Rowan was incredibly focused
02:16really knowing exactly what he wanted what he needed scrupulously plight and and busy busy thinking busy
02:25doing his work not demanding attention just just getting on with his work really
02:37some of the ambitions of it were perhaps a little bit bigger than the size of the studios we had
02:42to fit
02:43them into so big sets big banqueting halls wonderful costumes great big feats quite different to the more
02:52traditional sitcom which is a terrorist house perhaps open sets facing an audience long debates about whether
02:59to have an audience or not the advantages the disadvantages of studio laughter and it was felt
03:05very firmly that we shouldn't have one which of course from the some of the executives within the BBC there
03:11was
03:11anxiety about because that was breaking the norm of would people know what was funny I
03:16think that there were certainly times during the first series where you turn up and it felt more like a
03:23huge great feature film than a BBC comedy
03:27great big chunks of things to get hold of and get on top of and stunts and animals and big
03:34you're burning
03:35Frank Finlay at the stake effects or the plague lots of makeup effects as well so we built a whole
03:44village for the
03:45witch smell of pursuivant and the whole village and the people in the village and the animals in the village
03:51and we set fire to it so we
03:54weren't pussyfooting around
04:01as the AFM I was lower down the rungs and my the way I used to work was to try
04:07and anticipate
04:08what Richard or John or Rowan and might want next and try and be prepared but you it was impossible
04:18and there was one night when we were
04:20tucked up in our little hotel in Annick and about three in the morning under the door came a little
04:26note saying dearest
04:27hillybilly please could we have 20 black Jacob sheep on location tomorrow morning
04:34that would be lovely we'll love you forever kisses
04:37you think no how how do I find any sheep let alone black sheep anyway somehow you do
04:44you
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