Ben Elton

Ben Elton (born May 3, 1959, London, England) is a multifaceted comic actor, novelist, stand-up comedian, screenwriter and dramatist. A prominent figure in the 1980s British comedy scene, Elton is perhaps best known for cowriting the 1980s television sitcom The Young Ones (1982–84) and the final three of the four Blackadder series (1983–89), which star Rowan Atkinson. Elton has also authored more than 15 novels and multiple plays and musicals. Elton wrote and directed two feature films, romantic comedies Maybe Baby (2000) and Three Summers (2017), and he wrote the screenplay for the film All Is True (2018).

Early life and career in television and film

The youngest of four siblings, Elton was born in Catford, in southeastern London. His father was a university professor and his mother a teacher. His interest in the arts began at a very young age while he was attending Godalming Grammar School. He participated in amateur dramatic societies and wrote his first play at the age of 15. Elton studied drama at the University of Manchester. While at university, he met fellow comedians Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson. After graduating in 1980 he became at the time the youngest ever scriptwriter at the BBC. He also ventured into stand-up comedy, becoming a regular stand-up comedian and host at The Comedy Store, an alternative comedy venue in Soho, London. As a comedian he was known for his “motormouth” fast delivery.

Elton’s professional breakthrough came when Mayall approached him to be cowriter for an alternative comedy series to air on the BBC. Together, they created the popular slapstick sitcom The Young Ones (1982–84). Elton joined Richard Curtis to write the iconic BBC period sitcom series Blackadder (1983–89), starring Rowan Atkinson, for its second series (Blackadder II, 1986). He continued with the project for two more series after that and won a BAFTA award for the final series, the World War I-set Blackadder Goes Forth (1989).

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A pioneer in British comedy, Elton hosted Saturday Live (1985–87). The Channel 4 alternative comedy television show, later called Friday Night Live, was known for launching the careers of famed actors, such as Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, and Harry Enfield. Elton’s stand-up comedy routines during his television-hosting era—which often poked fun at conservative politicians such as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher—set a standard for British comedy. Even when not performing stand-up comedy himself, he was helping write other stand-up comedy specials. He was a cowriter of Rowan Atkinson’s 1992 comedy special Rowan Atkinson Live. He also wrote the exam episode of Atkinson’s show Mr. Bean (1990–95). Elton spearheaded projects such as the police sitcom The Thin Blue Line (1995–96)—again starring Rowan Atkinson—and the historical sitcom Upstart Crow (2016–20), which focuses on the life of playwright William Shakespeare. The film All Is True (2018), written by Elton, similarly concerns Shakespeare, specifically the end of the great bard’s life, and stars Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, and Ian McKellen.

Aside from stand-up comedy touring and television hosting, Elton has appeared sparingly but memorably as an actor in film and television, often as a marginal character, such as an anarchist in Blackadder III or a homeless man in The Thin Blue Line. In the star-studded film adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing (1993), directed by Kenneth Branagh, Elton played the comedic role of Verges alongside Michael Keaton’s portrayal of bumbling Constable Dogberry.

In 2007 Elton was awarded an honorary Rose d’Or award at the International Television Festival in Lucerne, Switzerland, of which he was a host, in recognition of his lifetime contributions to the television arts.

In 2019 he launched his first stand-up comedy tour in 15 years, titled Ben Elton Live, quipping when announcing the tour to the media, “The last time I toured I was still smarter than my phone. Things have definitely taken a funny turn.” He continued with another stand-up tour in 2024, titled Authentic Stupidity. Regarding the tour’s title, the comic joked on his website:

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Since my last live tour a whole new existential threat has emerged to threaten humanity! Apparently Artificial Intelligence is going to destroy us all! Well I reckon our real problem isn’t Artificial Intelligence it’s good old fashioned Authentic Stupidity! Forget AI! It’s AS we need to be worrying about!

Published novels and other works

In 1989 Elton published his first novel of many, an eco-thriller entitled Stark. He has since written more than 15 novels, some of them bestsellers, including Popcorn (1996), which won the 1996 Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger Award. The book Inconceivable (1999) is a semi-autobiographical take on the journey of Elton and his wife—Australian saxophonist Sophie Gare—through the process of in vitro fertilization (IVF). He adapted the book into the romantic comedy film he directed, Maybe Baby (2000), starring Laurie and Joely Richardson. Other novels of his include Dead Famous (2001), High Society (2002), Chart Throb (2006), Blind Faith (2007), Two Brothers (2012), and Identity Crisis (2019).

Writing in 2007 about the value of knowledge and books in the era of the Internet and social media, Elton wrote the following in Blind Faith from the perspective of a character describing a dystopian world:

The internet was supposed to liberate knowledge but in fact it buried it, first under a vast sewer of ignorance, laziness, bigotry, superstition and filth and then beneath the cloak of political surveillance. Now, as you know, cyberspace exists exclusively to promote commerce, gossip and pornography. And, of course, to hunt down sedition. Only paper is safe. Books are the key. A book cannot be accessed from afar, you have to hold it, you have to read it.

Elton’s writing abilities have also reached the West End stage. He has written several plays and musicals. His stage adaptation of his novel Popcorn won the 1998 Laurence Olivier award for best new comedy. In collaboration with Andrew Lloyd Webber, he wrote The Beautiful Game (2000) about a football (soccer) team in Northern Ireland during The Troubles, and Love Never Dies (2010), a sequel to The Phantom of the Opera. He also wrote the popular jukebox musical We Will Rock You (2002) in collaboration with and inspired by the English rock band Queen. In 2023 he wrote and directed Close-Up, a musical based on the life of English supermodel and actor Twiggy.