BLACKADDER - BLACKADDER TO RETURN IN 2006

Classic BBC comedy BLACKADDER will return to British TV screens for the fifth time next year (06) - 17 years after the last series ended with the deaths of its lead characters.

Actor ROWAN ATKINSON will return as the acerbic CAPTAIN EDMUND BLACKADDER in the eagerly-awaited episodes, which are due to be screened in early 2006.

Scriptwriter RICHARD CURTIS plans to get around the inconvenience of having killed off his characters by revealing they'd actually survived the enemy fire which ended the First World War-set BLACKADDER GOES FORTH, which first screened in 1989.

TONY ROBINSON, who played Blackadder's servant BALDRICK, will also return.

Curtis tells British newspaper the DAILY EXPRESS, "We'd always said we'd do it, and yes we definitely still want to."