Ben Elton was devastated when 'We Will Rock You' was panned by critics.
Ben Elton was devastated by the savage reviews for We Will Rock You
The 62-year-old comedian wrote the jukebox musical based on the hits of Queen in conjunction with the blessing of the band, but it received a critical mauling when it first opened in 2002 and Ben feared that all of the hard work bringing the production to the stage would be a waste.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph newspaper, he said: "It was devastating when those reviews came in. We thought 150 people were going to be out of work, all the effort was in vain."
The production went on to run in London's West End for more than a decade and Ben believes that his ideas for the show were ahead of their time.
Quoting the lines from the amended version of 'Radio Ga Ga', Ben said: "For what it's worth. I thought my idea was f***ing brilliant.
"No need to think, no need to feel, when only cyberspace is real.' It was written in 2000, and I think it was prescient. Look at streaming today. I think we predicted that people would get music direct from corporations."
Ben – who has written several comedy classics such as 'The Young Ones' and 'Blackadder' – added that his success and left wing political views led to him being "trolled" publicly for several years.
The stand-up comic - who made his name as a comedian lampooning late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s - shared: "You could say I've been trolled for years. It was f***ing horrible and it went on and on. A lot of people have turned on me publicly, and the only thing they could say was that I was a hypocrite.
"But I've always voted as I speak. I've never been as remotely left-wing as some people wanted me to be, and I've never been even slightly right-wing, as some have accused me of being. I'm a generally reasonable left-of-centre, middle-of-the-road, ordinary whatever."
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