Ben Elton created a sitcom featuring band Madness as UK government

Ben Elton created a sitcom featuring the band Madness.

The ‘Blackadder’ creator, 65, teamed up with ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’ writer Richard Curtis, 67, to pen the show, which aimed to be just like 1960s US hit series The Monkees, starring the mop-topped group.

Ben was quoted in the Daily Star saying about the lost project: “The first thing Richard wanted to collaborate with me on was sort of an idea like The Monkees but with Madness.

“I thought it was a great idea and we met Suggs and the boys and had a lot of fun and we put a script together.”

Ben and Richard’s pilot for the show saw now 63-year-old Suggs – real name Graham McPherson – elected Prime Minister of the UK, with the rest of Madness acting as his cabinet before moving the centre of government to Camden, North London.

But the comic-turned-writer said the show “withered on the vine” at the BBC.

He added: “The BBC were interested but they weren’t very interested and I’ll tell you why, that’s because Madness were just not smash hit chart heroes anymore. This was 1983 or something and they’d been huge from ’79 to ’81.

“Sadly the BBC couldn’t see that this was going to be a whole new thing.

“That’s when Richard said, ‘There’s another idea I wanted to talk to you about, why don’t you join me on Blackadder?’”

Ben has said he would love to see ‘Blackadder’ make a comeback, possibly in the theatre, co-written with Richard.

He told The Sun: “A ‘Blackadder’ play, if Richard was keen on it, I’d be interested.

“Not an adaptation of episodes – it would be an original play.

“When I wrote (Shakespeare satire) ‘Upstart Crow’, I did three series and three Christmas specials for TV, which was a load of writing, but I’m proud of the fact I then did an original play.”