Actor Tony Robinson best known for the series Blackadder tells the story of the original Blackadder pilot. Although I question how lost it really was as it has been in circulation for at least twenty years.
Despite some of the production crew including writer Richard Curtis claiming to have no memory of the pilot. I suspect that was an exaggeration.
Of course Tony Robinson was not in the pilot. He was cast but unavailable when the pilot was shot. Actor Philip Fox took over as Baldrick but Robinson replaced him when it went to full series.
I would have liked to have heard from Fox as well as Rowan Atkinson about the pilot episode. Also Robert Bathurst makes an early television appearance as Prince Henry, Blackadder's older brother and heir to the throne.
This presentation for UKTV, was more than just the pilot episode being broadcast. It was a padded documentary about the genesis of Blackadder and the first series. How the main characters were created and came to fruition in the pilot.
I was more interested in watching the episode rather than overlong documentary that preceded it.
As for the pilot, that was better than I expected with the Blackadder character more in keeping with the cynical and cunning character form Blackadder II onwards.
One interesting fact as to how this sitcom came about. Atkinson and Curtis wanted to do something similar with a Basil Fawlty type character. Only they knew it would be compared to Fawlty Towers. Hence why they set it in the past. The documentary does not mention this.
