Ben Elton

Ben Elton interview

"Something like The Young Ones, I don't think could have possibly survived in the Twitter age, because within five minutes everyone would have gone, 'This is weird, I don't understand what's going on'... "

Could Ben Elton's Upstart Crow be the new Blackadder?

Written by Elton, set in Tudor England, with witty and knowing nods to English cultural and political history, you say? Could this BBC Two show starring David Mitchell be another historical hit?

Josh, BBC Three review

It's horribly bland and difficult to see how Josh can avoid suffering the ignominy of lasting only one series (Edmondson, whose previous sitcom outing was in Ben Elton's execrable The Wright Way, may want to have a chat with her agent). But it's directed by David Schneider, and next week Edmondson's real-life mother, Jennifer Saunders, joins the cast as Kate's mum. Two reasons to tune in to see if Josh gets into its groove.

Book excerpt: Writing That Sitcom by James Cary

Writing the perfect sitcom is the Holy Grail of comedy. Get it right and you will be carried through the city on people's shoulders. Get it wrong and you might as well go and hide under a stone. Look at the brickbats aimed at Ben Elton's The Wright Way. Even the co-writer of Blackadder got it wrong.

General election: Ben Elton on Labour campaign trail

Ben Elton has recalled his campaigning for Labour in the 1980s and 1990s as he introduced Ed Miliband at a rally.

Ben Elton interview: backing Labour for the election

The comedian also called on Myleene Klass to pay her share of the tax after she "made loads taking a shower in a bikini".

Radio Times review

In a year when a celeb seemed to pop off every week, some losses were keener than others. Rik Mayall was 56 when he died suddenly in June: nowhere near retirement, as evidenced by his TV comeback last year in Man Down. That show's bereft creator, Greg Davies, contributes to this documentary, as do Michael Palin, Lenny Henry, Ben Elton, Alexei Sayle, Tim McInnerny and Ruby Wax.

The rare footage here should illustrate how Mayall justified the over-used phrase "force of nature". He was like a child eternally refusing to grow up. That's why it was so shocking when he turned out not to be unstoppable after all.

When almost anyone who's had their 15 minutes dies now, social media is awash with people who have never given the deceased a second thought chiming in that they'll be missed. When Rik Mayall died suddenly in June, thousands tweeted their grief.

"He was a golden youth," says Ben Elton. "He was the greatest of us all," says Alexei Sayle. "The sexy genius, Rik Mayall," says whoever wrote Simon Callow's suitably grandiose narration for this tribute programme, which does the usual run-through of all the late star's famous roles, making out that each was incredibly groundbreaking, while celebrity chums say what a great guy he was.

The thing is, with Rik Mayall, for once all of that is absolutely true. He was a bloody sexy genius. He was unique and I'm quite willing to believe he was brilliant to know. And that grief felt real: to a certain generation, at least, he was ours in a way no other entertainer could be and loved as much as any stranger could be. He never sold out, never became a sentimental, corny shadow of himself.

This tribute programme - obvious as it is, missing (totally understandably) any contributions from his family or Adrian Edmondson, but filled with wonderful early footage and photos - reminds us of just what we lost.

You may cry a wee bit. But you will definitely laugh.