He came to prominence for his role in the British situation comedy Blackadder as Edmund Blackadder's disgusting man-servant/batman Baldrick. In the first series he was quite intelligent but subsequently his character evolved into that of an intellectually challenged buffoon. His catchphrase in this programme was, "I have a cunning plan."
He also played the Sherriff of Nottingham[?] in another comedy TV series, Maid Marian and her Merry Men, which he also wrote.
Until 2000, he was vice-president of the actors' union Equity. Since leaving, he has been elected to the Labour Party's National Executive Committee[?].
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump