Sir Tony Robinson wants to Dustin Hoffman take over the role of Baldrick in a remake of ‘Blackadder’.
The 70-year-old actor portrayed Edmund Blackadder’s hapless dogsbody in four series of the iconic sitcom each set in different periods of Britain’s history.
There has been much discussion about the show – which starred Rowan Atkinson in the titular role – returning for another series but now Tony has come up with a particularly cunning plan if the programme was ever completely rebooted, which is to replace him with the Oscar winner and star of such films as ‘The Graduate’ and ‘Rain Man’.
In an interview in the latest issue of mature men’s lifestyle magazine CalibreQuarterly.com, Tony said: "If anyone else were to play Baldrick, I would choose Dustin Hoffman. I’ve just always thought that, as a performer, [Hoffman] was a kindred spirit. Right from ‘The Graduate’ onwards, I just know why he’s made the acting choices he has. I can’t explain it , but when I see what you’re doing Dustin, I just get it."
Despite the clamour for more ‘Blackadder’ from fans, Tony doesn’t believe there will be a reboot or a reunion of the main cast, which included Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson and Tim McInnerny, and the writing team of Richard Curtis and Ben Elton because not enough of the original team want to make more.
Tony also admits the big fear is that they would make more episodes only for the laughs to dry up because it has been almost 28 years since ‘Blackadder Goes Forth’ – which was set in the trenches of World War I – aired in 1989.
The ‘Time Team’ presenter said: "I don’t think it will it will happen because there isn’t sufficient will amongst the majority of people associated with ‘Blackadder’. I suspect that Rowan is quite agnostic about it. And Ben is probably the one who’d most like to do another one. You look at somebody like Richard and he has got so many projects on. Tim has always said the problem with doing any more Blackadders is that even if we made it the best series in the world people have moved on. They would watch it wanting it to be imbued with the emotions they had when they watched ‘Blackadder Goes Forth’, and there’s no way we could deliver that."
Tony Robinson: Dustin Hoffman could play Baldrick in Blackadder remake
