{"id":604634,"date":"2026-05-26T11:09:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T11:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/604634\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T11:09:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T11:09:11","slug":"ben-elton-says-no-one-is-interested-in-him-any-more-i-used-to-be-a-radical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/604634\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Elton says no one is interested in him any more: \u2018I used to be a radical\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n

Your support makes all the difference.Read more<\/p>\n

Ben Elton<\/a> was one of the most ubiquitous faces in British pop culture in the Eighties and Nineties<\/a>, but he has expressed sadness about having dropped off the radar in recent years.<\/p>\n

Elton shot to fame in the Eighties, co-writing seminal TV comedies including The Young Ones and Blackadder<\/a> and hob-nobbing with a raft of famous names at the beginning of their careers, among them Rik Mayall, Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson and Jennifer Saunders.<\/p>\n

His career blossomed from there, with Elton writing a number of novels, including 1996\u2019s Popcorn and 2001\u2019s Dead Famous, as well as writing the books for numerous hit musicals, among them the Queen musical We Will Rock You and the Phantom of the Opera sequel Love Never Dies.<\/p>\n

But in a new interview, Elton has admitted that he struggles to be commissioned by major television broadcasters today.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one\u2019s very interested in me,\u201d he told The i<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe filmed my last stand-up tour, but we could no more get that on Netflix than fly to the moon. I\u2019m not remotely hip anymore and nobody feels cool commissioning me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BenBen Elton in 2023 (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cI used to be a radical, and now I\u2019m feeling something of a curmudgeon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elton did add, however, that he isn\u2019t prone to self-pity, and acknowledged how successful he was for the bulk of his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were a lucky generation,\u201d he said. \u201cI have had my share of privilege. Somebody who\u2019s had as good a fortune as me can\u2019t be bitter about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elton\u2019s last major TV vehicle was the BBC sitcom Upstart Crow<\/a>, which starred David Mitchell as William Shakespeare. The show, which was acclaimed by critics, launched in 2016 and came to an end with a Christmas special in 2020.<\/p>\n

Last year, during a conversation with his early Blackadder collaborator Richard Curtis at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, Elton admitted that his early TV persona \u2013 of a political, abrasive socialist \u2013 wasn\u2019t entirely true.<\/p>\n

\"EltonElton at the launch of the musical ‘We Will Rock You’ in 2002, alongside Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor, and producer Robert De Niro (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cThis image of a very, very self-confident, very left-wing, very angry person, was never the person I knew,\u201d Curtis told Elton.<\/p>\n

Elton said that he thought the politics in his act had always been \u201cbalanced\u201d but because of the \u201cfury\u201d in which he delivered it, it appeared to be more \u201caggressively left\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m Labour, I\u2019m welfare state, but when I was at university, I was considered worryingly right-wing, because I supported the Labour Party,\u201d Elton said.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Elton sparked debate when he dubbed then prime minister Rishi Sunak a \u201cnarcissistic sociopath\u201d<\/a> during a BBC daytime appearance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-604634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}