Ben Elton
Benjamin Charles Elton is a British comedian and writer. He has written and produced for television, radio, films, novels, theatre and musicals, and has performed as a stand-up comedian and on screen. One of the major figures in the alternative comedy movement of the 1980s, he used a style of left-wing political satire in his early stand-up comedy.
He co-wrote the TV sitcoms The Young Ones, Blackadder and Mr. Bean, and was the sole writer for other sitcoms such as Filthy, Rich & Catflap, The Thin Blue Line and Upstart Crow. As of 2025, he has published sixteen novels in dystopian, comedy, and crime genres, and an autobiography. He wrote the stage musicals The Beautiful Game, We Will Rock You, Tonight's the Night, and Love Never Dies.
Early life and education
Benjamin Charles Elton was born at University College Hospital in Fitzrovia, London, the son of Mary, an English teacher from Cheshire, and physicist and educational researcher Lewis Elton. He is a nephew of the historian Sir Geoffrey Elton and a third cousin of singer Olivia Newton-John. Elton's father is from a German-Jewish family and Elton's mother, who was raised in the Church of England, is of British background.Elton grew up in Catford, South London, before moving with his family to Guildford, Surrey in 1968, where he became involved in amateur dramatics groups. Reflecting on those times at an event in Guildford in 2013, Elton said:
Raised in a loving non-religious home, he is an atheist. Elton studied at Stillness Junior School and Godalming Grammar School in Surrey, before leaving home at age 16 to study theatre at South Warwickshire College in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he took and passed A-levels in English, History and Theatre Studies. In 1977 he went to study drama at the University of Manchester, where he met Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson, and in 1980 he graduated with upper second-class honours.
Career
Television
Upon university graduation in 1980, Elton joined the BBC and became their youngest ever scriptwriter.His first television appearance came in 1981 as a stand-up performer on the BBC1 youth and music programme Oxford Road Show. His first TV success, at 23, came as co-writer of the television sitcom The Young Ones, in which he occasionally appeared.
In 1983/84 he wrote and appeared in Granada Television's sketch show Alfresco, which was also notable for early appearances by Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson and Robbie Coltrane. In 1985, Elton produced his first solo script for the BBC with his comedy-drama series Happy Families, starring Jennifer Saunders and Adrian Edmondson. Elton appeared in the fifth episode as a liberal prison governor. Shortly afterwards, he reunited Rik Mayall and Edmondson with their Young Ones co-star Nigel Planer for the showbiz send-up sitcom Filthy, Rich & Catflap.
In 1985 Elton began his writing partnership with Richard Curtis. Together they wrote Blackadder II, Blackadder the Third, Blackadder Goes Forth, and a failed sitcom pilot for Madness. Blackadder, starring Rowan Atkinson, was a worldwide hit, winning four BAFTAs and an Emmy.
Elton and Curtis were inspired to write Blackadder Goes Forth upon finding World War I to be apt for a situation comedy. This series, which dealt with greater, darker themes than prior Blackadder episodes, was praised for Curtis's and Elton's scripts, in particular the final episode. Before writing the series, the pair read about the war and found that:
Elton and Curtis also wrote Atkinson's 1986 stage show The New Revue, and Mr. Bean's "exam" episode.
Elton became a stand-up comedian primarily to showcase his own writing, but became one of Britain's biggest live comedy acts. After a regular slot on Saturday Live – later moved and renamed Friday Night Live – which was seen as a UK version of the US's Saturday Night Live, he became the host of the programme.
In 1990 he starred in his own stand-up comedy and sketch series, Ben Elton: The Man from Auntie, which had a second series in 1994. In 1989 Elton won the Royal Television Society Writers' Award.
Elton wrote and produced The Thin Blue Line, a studio-based sitcom set in a police station, also starring Rowan Atkinson, which ran for two series in 1995 and 1996. A prime-time family show with traditional format and characters, it won the 1995 British Comedy Award and both the public and professional Jury Awards at Reims.
The Ben Elton Show followed a format similar to The Man from Auntie and featured Ronnie Corbett, a comedian of the old guard that the "alternative comedians" of the 1980s were the direct alternative to, as a regular guest. It was Elton's last high-profile network programme in the UK as a stand-up comedian.
Elton wrote the six-part sitcom Blessed, starring Ardal O'Hanlon as a record producer, first broadcast on BBC1 in 2005. No further series was commissioned.
In April 2007, Get a Grip, a new show, began on ITV1. Featuring comic sketches similar to those on The Ben Elton Show and staged studio discussion between Elton and 23-year-old Alexa Chung, the show's aim was to "contrast Elton's middle-aged viewpoint with Chung's younger perspective".
In 2008, Elton accused the BBC of allowing jokes about vicars but not imams. "And I believe that part of it is due to the genuine fear that the authorities and the communities have about provoking the radical elements of Islam".
On 10 October 2010, Elton headlined the first episode of Dave's One Night Stand.
Elton worked on Ben Elton Live From Planet Earth, a live one-hour comedy show which debuted on 8 February 2011 on the Nine Network in Australia. Live from Planet Earth was axed by the Nine Network on Wednesday 23 February 2011 after three episodes, despite having six commissioned. The show's final airing rated 200,000 viewers.
In 2012, The Wright Way, a new sitcom for BBC1 was commissioned, written and produced by Elton and starring David Haig. Filming for a full six-part series of the sitcom was completed in late February 2013. It debuted in April 2013 to negative reviews.
In 2016 Elton wrote the sitcom Upstart Crow, parodying the writing and family life of William Shakespeare, and starring David Mitchell as Shakespeare. This programme ran for a second series in 2017, and a third series in 2018. A Christmas Special was aired on 21 December 2020.
In June 2023, Elton presented Ben Elton: The Great Railway Disaster, a Channel 4 documentary about rail privatisation.
Elton returned to live British television on Channel 4 on 21 October 2022 as "Ringmaster"/host of a revival of Friday Night Live, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the founding of Channel 4 and as part of their Truth and Dare season. On the day of the broadcast, Elton admitted that because of the fluid British political situation, "I honestly haven't written the first five minutes yet!"
Radio
Elton starred with Adrian Edmondson in a sitcom based on the song "Teenage Kicks" for BBC Radio 2. A television version of Teenage Kicks for ITV has been made; Elton appeared in the pilot but was replaced by Mark Arden when it went to series production.Novels
- Stark
- Gridlock
- This Other Eden
- Popcorn
- Blast from the Past
- Inconceivable
- Dead Famous
- High Society
- Past Mortem
- The First Casualty
- Chart Throb
- Blind Faith
- Meltdown
- Two Brothers
- Time and Time Again
- ''Identity Crisis''
Autobiography
- What Have I Done?
Films
While in bit parts in his own TV series, he began professional film acting as CD in Stark, the Australian/BBC TV series adaptation of his novel, in 1993. This was directed by Nadia Tass and filmed in Australia.
Elton played Verges in Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, also in 1993.
Writing and directing
Elton wrote and directed the film adaptation of his novel Inconceivable, under the title Maybe Baby starring Hugh Laurie and Joely Richardson. It was a moderate UK success and distributed globally. The film was also nominated for a prize at Germany's Emden Film Festival.In 2015, Elton wrote a song for The Wiggles for the Wiggle Town DVD and CD: The Wonder of Wiggle Town.
Three Summers, a romantic comedy film written and directed by Elton, and filmed in Western Australia, was released in 2017.
Elton wrote All is True, released 2018, a speculative story of William Shakespeare's years in Stratford-upon-Avon after his retirement from the theatre and move from London. Along with the filmcraft and acting, returning to collaboration with Kenneth Branagh, All is True shows Elton giving a more serious and biographical perspective to some of the same characters who appear in Upstart Crow.
Musicals
Elton collaborated with Andrew Lloyd Webber on The Beautiful Game in 2000, writing the book and lyrics. The Beautiful Game won the London Critics Circle Award for best new musical.He went on to write compilation shows featuring popular songs from the catalogues of pop/rock artists. The first was the musical We Will Rock You with music by Queen. Despite unfavourable early reaction, this was successful in the West End and won the 2003 Theatregoers' Choice Award for Best New Musical. It has since opened in the US, Australia, Russia, Spain, South Africa, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, and The Netherlands. Elton also directed the 10th Anniversary Arena tour, in 2013. The musical ran for 12 years in London. The character of Pop was originally played by Elton's The Young Ones, co-star, Nigel Planer.
His second compilation musical was Tonight's the Night, based on the songs of Rod Stewart, which opened in London's West End in November 2003.
Elton worked with Lloyd Webber on the musical Love Never Dies, which opened in London's West End in 2010. It was the sequel to Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera.
Elton directed a new 20th anniversary tour of We Will Rock You, that opened in February 2022 and visited over 25 cities in the United Kingdom. He was scheduled to, make his theatre debut as the Rebel Leader in a production of the show in 2023 at the London Coliseum from 2 June to 27 August. The 3 main cast members from the touring production will also be starring.
Elton wrote and directed Twiggy The Musical, a jukebox musical based on the life of Twiggy, which had its world premiere at the Menier Chocolate Factory, London in September 2023 and will tour the UK from September 2025.