The BBC’s hit collection of sitcoms featured a star-studded cast, with one actor being open about his turbulent past.
Blackadder continues to be a British staple in comedy, and the series of four period sitcoms originally aired on BBC One from 1983 until 1989. English actor and comedian Hugh Laurie starred in the third and fourth seasons as George, a character presented as two distinct incarnations.
The first incarnation was a caricature of George, Prince of Wales, while the second was a young officer in the British Army during the First World War. Both versions of the character garnered positive responses from critics and actor Laurie went on to land more major roles.
The 67-year-old actor, from Oxford, is best known for his comedy work alongside Stephen Fry, and also received many accolades for his role as Dr Gregory House in the Fox medical drama series House. The star has been candid about his personal life away from the cameras, and here is all you need to know.
Born James Hugh Calum Laurie, the star is the youngest of four children and he previously opened up about his challenging childhood- particularly the relationship he had with his mother, Patricia. In 2006, on an episode of Inside the Actors Studio, he shared: “I was a frustration to her. She didn’t like me.”
He also previously called himself a “horrible child”, telling The Daily Telegraph in 1999: “I was, in truth, a horrible child. Not much given to things of a bookery nature, I spent a large part of my youth smoking Number Six and cheating in French vocabulary tests.
“I wore platform boots with a brass skull and crossbones over the ankle, my hair was disgraceful, and I somehow contrived to pull off the gruesome trick of being both fat and thin at the same time. If you had passed me in the street during those pimply years, I am confident that you would, at the very least, have quickened your pace.”
While at college, the actor followed in his father’s footsteps and took up rowing, and was on course to become an Olympic-standard rower. However, he was forced to abandon the sport due to a bout of glandular fever and instead joined a university drama club – the Cambridge Footlights.
It was here he met actress Emma Thompson, with whom he had a romantic relationship, and they continue to be friends to this day. It was Thompson who would introduce him to the other half of his comedy duo, Stephen Fry. Away from acting, the star is also a talented pianist, having taken up lessons from the age of six.
He is also a keen writer, and in 1996 he penned his first thriller, The Gun Seller, which became a bestseller. As for his personal life, the actor married theatre administrator Jo Green in 1989 and they have three children, two of whom went on to have small acting roles.
The star has also been open about his mental health battles and, in 2012, he discussed his struggles with severe clinical depression. “It affected everything – my family and friends. I was a pain in the arse to have around. I was miserable and self-absorbed. It’s actually selfish to be depressed and not try and do anything about it,” he told The Standard.
He accepted his wife and children were affected by his depression, adding: “I diagnosed myself as being depressed and decided I would try and sort it out. I don’t know enough about the illness to say whether it was clinical, but it was certainly more than feeling a bit sad.”
He knew he “had a problem” when he was attending a stock-car race for charity and in the middle of the race, with cars exploding and turning over, he realised he was “bored”. “I thought: ‘This can’t be right. I should either be hating it with every fibre of my being or loving it, because this is an extreme experience.’ I realised this was the state of mind of a depressed person,” he concluded.
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