Popular British comic character Blackadder looks like he could have one more role up his sleeve, after a 'lost Christmas special' was re-discovered by scriptwriter Richard Curtis. Played by the actor Rowan Atkinson, Blackadder had entertained British television audiences between 1983 and 1989 in a series of historical roles that saw him appear by series as the weedy son of King Richard IV, an Elizabethan-era Lord, butler to the Prince of Wales in the late 18th century and finally as a captain in the trenches of World War I.

This newly found script though, originally unfinished in 1988 by Curtis and Ben Elton, sees Blackadder play the Bethlehem inn keeper in the story of the nativity, with his trusty assistant Baldrick once again by his side. The script has become public knowledge thanks to a book written by Jem Roberts called The True History Of Blackadder. Roberts was given the script by Curtis whilst constructing the piece, and she told the Radio Times "My jaw dropped when I saw I was holding a lost Blackadder script. He [Curtis] wrote on the script that one of the reasons it didn't get used was because it was a strange cross between Fawlty Towers and Life of Brian."

She added "He didn't think he was going to make it compare to either of them. That's his reason for it never getting any further than it did." With Blackadder still retaining a large cult popularity, in spite of the last televised special being aired in 1999, we wonder whether there might be room for one final, festive hurrah.