Gareth Gwenlan

Michael Grade in one of his typical short sighted and numbskull moves tried to axe Blackadder after one series But Gareth Gwenlan the head of comedy at the BBC disagreed and asked Richard Curtis to write a smaller scale show which he did with the help of Ben Elton. The rest they say is history. The death of Gwenlan was announced this week, he was part of the making of some the biggest sit-coms the UK has known including Only Fools and Horses, Yes, Minister and To the Manor Born to name just 3.