Doctor Who actor Tom Baker has recalled how working with “anxious” Rowan Atkinson on an episode of Blackadder was a difficult experience.
Baker had a cameo role as a deranged sailor called Captain Redbeard Rum in the second series of the beloved historical sitcom.
Speaking to David Walliams for Radio Times, the 85-year-old said the performance was “incredible” but Atkinson had been a tricky character.
“Rowan Atkinson was so anxious – he wasn’t very fun to work with,” he said. “He took me aside the first afternoon of recording and he said: ‘You know Tom, I’m very experienced in this and the part you’re playing here, this sea captain, I think you’re actually doing too much. I think he should be as boring as you can make him.’
“So, we then had the final run-through, and I did this boring routine, and the producer came down and said, ‘What’s going on, are you ill?’ I said, ‘No, no, no, I’m just taking in the notes from your boss.’ And he then said, ‘Tom, he does that every week. He gives those same notes to the visitors every week.’ Weird isn’t it? A comic genius and yet he has these anxieties.”
The Blackadder episode Baker appeared in was titled “Potato” and also guest starred Simon Jones, best known for voicing the protagonist of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in various radio adaptations.
