For programme makers have hinted the popular comedy series may yet make a return, as writer Ben Elton said: “Blackadder is not finished.”

The show’s producer, John Lloyd, added programme makers had still not decided whether Blackadder Goes Forth would definitely be the last outing, as the team admit they will never officially rule it out.

Speaking to the Mail on Sunday’s Event magazine, Ben Elton, who joined the team as a writer for the second series, said: “Blackadder is not finished. We’ll never officially close it down…ever.”

Lloyd added: “It was always the idea that the last episode would be this tragic thing, but I don’t think we ever decided that it would be the last series.

“And I suppose in many ways we still haven’t decided.”

Their words will bring hope to the show’s legions of fans, more than 30 years after the show was first broadcast.

They are also likely to lead to further speculation, after Lloyd was reported as telling a newspaper he held talks with Rowan Atkinson in August this year.

Speaking of a plan to reunite old cast members for a Blackadder film, he added the “Dad’s Army-style” script could see a platoon being kidnapped by a German submarine and taken to Colditz, where they embark on a plot to escape.

In an article this weekend, the Blackadder team has also disclosed the remarkable moments which led up to the final scene of Blackadder Goes Forth, which saw characters go over the top of the trenches and into battle.

The shot will be remembered for its remarkably harrowing effect, among the light-hearted comedy of dozens of preceding episodes.

Atkinson said of the scene: “I had this knot in the pit of my stomach. An extraordinary feeling of dread I’ve never felt before.

Lloyd added: “The actors were alone, in the dark, and had to go over the top, with real explosions going off around them.

“After the first, shocking take, the audience and the production team were stunned into silence, but the director and I felt it could be done a bit better.”

When asked to repeat it, Atkinson was heard to say: “I’m sorry, b-but we can’t do another; it’s just too horrible.”