Anyone hoping for a new series of Blackadder reuniting the key original cast members may have to brace themselves for a disappointment.

At the weekend it was reported that Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry and Sir Tony Robinson had met at the Soho House in London and discussed bringing back the show, but Sir Tony Robinson has poured cold water on the story.

Following stories in the press and much excitement among fans, Dj Tim Shires tweeted Sir Tony Robinson: "@Tony_Robinson Is it true about Blackadder making a return? If so... very excited for this! Almost as excited about the imminent announcement from @BristolCity about Tomas Kalas! #BringBackBaldrick" And Robinson replied: "One of these rumours is probably true, the other isn’t!!"

And according to an update on the story on Yahoo, A spokeswoman for Sir Tony Robinson, who played Baldrick, said: “It sounds lovely but I’m afraid neither we nor Tony know anything about this.”

When BTJ ran the story of Blackadder Series Five over the weekend – it had also been reported that Richard Curtis had talked about Atkinson's Blackadder being an ageing academic this time round in a contemporary setting – we did add a note of caution pointing out that this is something that keeps popping up - "the "Blackadder Returns" story tends to come up on a regular basis...See here from 2018. Here from 2017. Here from 2016..."

We can, however, hope that the reported meeting will bear fruit this time round. If it is any consolation, BBC4 has been re-running old Blackadders and numerous episodes are currently available on iPlayer.

Picture: BBC