Ben Elton
Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth
Gyles Brandreth / Plain Jaine Media
4.6 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 10 October 2025
⏱️ 82 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ben Elton was instrumental in the transformation of British comedy that took place in the 1980s. His scripts for The Young Ones and Blackadder were fresh, anarchic, rude, clever and hilarious. The people that worked alongside Ben - Richard Curtis, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Rik Mayall, Ade Edmondson, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders - to name but a few - are legendary. In this episode of Rosebud, Ben talks to Gyles about his parents, his father's family story - they had escaped persecution in Germany at the start of the war - and how he became interested in comedy as a young boy. He talks about the process of writing Blackadder, which was sometimes tortuous, and what it felt like to be slated by the critics when We Will Rock You first opened in the West End.
Ben's autobiography, "What Have I Done?" is out now and available here.
Rosebud has a new website www.rosebudpodcast.co.uk and a new Facebook group - just search "Rosebud Reflections".
Enjoy this!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Oh, this is good. Today's podcast is sponsored by the UK's largest digital pharmacy, pharmacy to you. |
| 0:07.4 | Now, Harriet, do you have repeat prescriptions in your family? We do, yes. And we do in ours. |
| 0:14.1 | I have to tell you, I find staying on top of them quite a nightmare. Going there, hanging around, |
| 0:19.8 | come back to model, all that sort of stuff. |
| 0:21.4 | Well, let me tell you, pharmacy to you is an NHS approved service that delivers repeat |
| 0:27.5 | prescriptions to your home for free for the whole family. |
| 0:30.7 | Yeah, they manage everything right from their app. |
| 0:34.6 | You can set reminders, track your order, check your medicine is in stock and even |
| 0:38.9 | manage your family's medication all in one place. But there's so much more than just a delivery |
| 0:45.1 | service. Are they? Pharmacy to you is building a complete digital health platform. They offer |
| 0:52.3 | free NHS pharmacist consultations with real people where you can |
| 0:57.6 | complete a consultation by video on your phone or explore treatment options and then pharmacy |
| 1:03.5 | to you will deliver any prescribed treatment all in one place. Plus online doctor consultations |
| 1:10.2 | for sensitive conditions like hair loss or weight loss. |
| 1:14.1 | It's an incredibly smart way to take control of your health, Giles. |
| 1:18.9 | Well, and over 1.6 million people are already using pharmacy to you to simplify their lives. |
| 1:26.0 | It's about convenience. And it's also about a smarter |
| 1:30.2 | approach to your healthcare. Download the Pharmacy to You app and order your medicine today. Prescriptions |
| 1:36.6 | made simple. You got it. This podcast is brought to you by Reserve by Warner Hotels, a collection of hand-picked destinations that are more |
| 1:47.3 | than just a hotel. Reserve is a special collection of three unique and sophisticated properties |
| 1:53.8 | curated by Warner Hotels. It includes the Rune-Mead on Thames in Windsor, the 300-year-old Haythrop Park in the Cotswolds, |
| 2:03.4 | and Thorsby Hall in Nottinghamshire. Each of these properties has their own distinctive |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Gyles Brandreth / Plain Jaine Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Gyles Brandreth / Plain Jaine Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.