Blackadder meeting between Richard Curtis and comedian Ben Elton led to the decision to collaborate on a new series of Blackadder. Recognising the main faults of the first series, Curtis and Elton agreed that "Blackadder II" would be a studio-only production (along with the inclusion of a live audience during recording, instead of showing the episodes to an audience after taping). Besides adding a greater comedy focus, Elton suggested a major change in character emphasis: Baldrick would become the stupid sidekick, while Edmund Blackadder evolved into a cunning sycophant. This led to the familiar set-up that was maintained in the following
Blackadder the past to do a fifth series, set in the 1960s (centred on a rock band called the "Black Adder Five", with Baldrick – a.k.a. 'Bald Rick' – as the drummer). In the documentary "Blackadder Rides Again", Robinson stated that the series would present Blackadder as the bastard son of Queen Elizabeth II and running a Beatles-like rock band. Rowan Atkinson, Tony Robinson, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Tim McInnerny and Miranda Richardson would have reprised their roles, and reportedly, Brian Blessed, Elspet Gray and Robert East would have returned from the first series to play Blackadder's biological family. Robinson in