Already a successful comedian, Ben Elton turned to writing situation comedies during the 1980s and penned BBC classics such as "The Young Ones" (1982), "Black-Adder II" (1986), "Black Adder the Third" (1987), "Blackadder 4" (1989) and during the 1990s "The Thin Blue Line" (1995).

He provided lyrics for Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, "The Beautiful Game", which was nominated for Best Musical at the Laurence Olivier Theatre Awards in 2001 (2000 season).