To plug jubilee concerts

Rowan Atkinson is to create a new reincarnation of Blackadder for a TV advert promoting the Queen's jubilee concert.

The new character, Sir Osmond Darling-Blackadder, is keeper of Her Majesty's lawn sprinkler, and is told to announce the event, even though he thinks it is a terrible idea.

"We don't want thousands of people wandering around here willy-nilly," he says. "I said to her 'you're the Queen, not Fat Boy Slim."

The advertisement was filmed in secret at Buckingham Palace's state rooms and gardens earlier this month.

It was writted by Ben Elton and Richard Curtis and was due to be screened from this week, but was postponed after Princess Margarert's death

Creative director Nick Vaughan-Barratt told BBC staff magazine Ariel: "It shows that our attitude to the jubilee is contemporary, and that the palace has a good sense of humour."

Tickets for the concerts, on June 1 and 3, will be allocated by ballot, and the shows will also be broadcast on the BBC.

Published: 12 Feb 2002