History Creator / BenElton

Benjamin Charles Elton (born 3 May 1959) is an English writer, director and comedian who co-wrote ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'' (from its second season onward) with Richard Curtis. He also wrote and produced ''Series/TheThinBlueLine'', co-wrote ''Series/TheYoungOnes'' with Creator/RikMayall and Lise Meyer, and was solo writer on ''Series/FilthyRichAndCatflap'' and the now largely-forgotten sketch show ''Series/{{Alfresco}}''. More recently, he created and wrote the sitcom ''Series/UpstartCrow''.

* CrazyEnoughToWork: In ''Gridlock'' a drunken Sandy, mistakenly thinking he can pass for a woman, dresses in full drag and shows up to Digby's hotel room to blackmail him. It works because Digby happens to be a closet gay, and outs himself in panic.

* CoitusEnsues: In several books, to the point where ''The First Casualty'' earned Elton a nomination for the Bad Sex Awards (an annual prize given to the author of the worst sex scene in fiction that year.)

Benjamin Charles Elton (born 3 May 1959) is an English writer, director and comedian who co-wrote ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'' (from its second season onward) with Richard Curtis. He also wrote and produced ''Series/TheThinBlueLine'', co-wrote ''Series/TheYoungOnes'' with Creator/RikMayall and Lise Meyer, and was solo writer on ''Series/FilthyRichAndCatflap'' and the now largely-forgotten sketch show ''Series/{{Alfresco}}''.

* AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder: Despite genuinely loving his wife Agnes, Kingsley in ''The First Casualty'' has an affair with Nurse Murray while undercover mainly because he's been separated from Agnes for so long.

* BeautyIsEvil: Captain Shannon in ''The First Casualty'' is a violent, misogynistic, sociopathic rapist and killer without a shred of conscience. He gets away with this partly because he is very handsome and others view him favourably for it.

* DiggingYourselfDeeper: What kick-starts the plot of ''Identity Crisis''. Inspector Matlock receives huge press backlash and becomes the subject of a nationwide witch-hunt when he states during a press conference that a young female murder victim was "in the wrong place at the wrong time" - meaning that if it wasn't her it would likely have been some other unfortunate girl, but the public takes this as victim-blaming. His subsequent efforts to remedy the situation only end up making it worse.

* TorchesAndPitchforks: The world of ''Blind Faith'' has all laws passed by mob assent, and the Temple enforces its rule partly by whipping up the public into frenzied mobs against any perceived transgression. ''High Society'' has an incident where a family whose child died after accidentally eating his sister's Ecstasy pills is attacked by an angry mob; Peter Paget uses the subsequent press attention to publicise his campaign to legalise all drugs in the UK.

* WarIsHell: Pretty much ''First Casualty'' and ''Two Brothers'' in a nutshell.

* LoveMakesYouEvil: Peter in ''Blast From the Past''.

** ''Blast From the Past'': [[spoiler:There is a huge scandal over Jack's death and the details of his involvement with Polly, just as he feared; and Polly is left with nothing. Harry contacts her, wanting to know more about her and her relationship with his brother. At the end of the story he comes to visit Polly, and she notices how much he looks like Jack, only that his voice is "kinder, somehow"]]

* FieryRedhead: Jessie in ''High Society''.

* LittleMissBadass: Anna Leman in ''High Society'' is a 14-year-old martial arts champion. When she's threatened by political enemies of her father, he has her step up her training and taught to kill (although she's given several personal alarms as well.

* SubParSupremacist:''Stark'' features a BasementDweller skinhead thug who believes in the supremacy of the White race. The omniscient narrator expresses amazement that looking into the mirror every day hasn't snapped him out of that belief.

* LittleMissBadass: Anna Leman in ''High Society''

* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: The victims in ''Past Mortem'' all committed various acts of bullying as teenagers, and the one who the detective seems to consider the worst of the bunch (albeit not by much) repeatedly molested and raped a girl when they were both thirteen and also sexually harassed a teenaged employee at his workplace decades later. Another victim led a gang of [[BarbaricBully barbaric bullies]] who threatened to gang rape a teacher if she tried to keep them from beating up and sexually harassing their classmates.

* MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome: In ''Identity Crisis'', Sammy Hill's murder is a huge news story for weeks on end, mostly because she was a young, beautiful white woman (although parttly because Matlock caused a media storm at a press conference about the murder.) This later leads to controversy over the fact that the murder of a young Black woman around the same time barely received a fraction of the news coverage Sammy Hill got.

* MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome: In ''Identity Crisis'', Sammy Hill's murder is a huge news story weeks on end. This is partly because Matlock inadvertently caused a media storm at a press conference about the case; but mainly because the victim was a young, beautiful white woman. This later leads to controversy over the fact that the murder of a young Black woman around the same time barely received a fraction of the news coverage Sammy Hill got.

* PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad: One of the central themes of ''Identity Crisis''.

--> ''For a moment Newson was confused, knowing that Mrs. Ahern was a staunch Irish Nationalist. Then he realizes that these bullets were not intended to be offered as gifts.''

* AssholeVictim: Many of the murder victims in ''Past Mortem'' [[spoiler:though Christine, while an AlphaBitch as a teen and a [[BrainlessBeauty shallow ditz]] as an adult is sympathetic and her murder comes across as a MoralEventHorizon for the killer.]]

* {{Transgender}}: ''Identity Crisis'' involves the murder of a transgender woman, with the lead detective on the case (who knows very little about trans people) having to learn about it fairly quickly and investigate whether the victim's gender identity might have been a motive for the crime.

* ''Dead Famous'' (2001)

* AnimalWrongsGroup: Woggle in ''Dead Famous'' is a one-man example.

* BedlamHouse: Subverted in ''Dead Famous'' when a contestant on a reality TV show pretends to have been abused in a mental institution, in order to boost her appeal with the public. The producer knows this is a lie because both of her own parents were institutionalized, and decides not to broadcast the footage.

* ButchLesbian: Played with in ''Dead Famous'': Sally, although outwardly the textbook example of this trope, is one of the most sympathetic characters in the book. Also inverted with Trish, who is in the closet and resents people assuming she is heterosexual simply because she's not butch.

* CampingACrapper: The whole plot of [[spoiler: ''Dead Famous'']] turns out to be based around this. [[spoiler: Geraldine realised that at least one of the girls would have to go to the bathroom and planned for the murder to take place there.]]
* CheatersNeverProsper: In ''Dead Famous'', there's public outrage when Dervla is found to have been cheating by secretly communicating with a cameraman; this results in her ultimately not winning (despite previously being the most popular contestant) because people refuse to vote for her. It's also mentioned that something similar happened in a previous series of the show when a contestant found to be tampering with microphones was disqualified. All of this is presented as rather hypocritical given the manipulative tactics used by the housemates and production team alike.

** [[spoiler:Sally]] in ''Dead Famous'' attempts suicide on-camera when [[spoiler:she]] becomes a prime suspect in the murder. [[spoiler:She survives.]]

* [[EvenTheGuysWantHim Even the Girls Want Her]]: Seems to be the case for Dervla in ''Dead Famous'', as even [[ButchLesbian Sally]] says she'd like her to be her date at Pride.

** Almost all the housemates in ''Dead Famous'' are blatant imitations of notable contestants from the first two series of ''Big Brother''.

* GranolaGirl: Layla in ''Dead Famous''. Polly from ''Blast From the Past'' was one as a teenager.

* HoldingTheFloor: In ''Dead Famous'', Inspector Coleridge talks on television for five and a half minutes to delay the end of the show so his colleagues can arrive with [[spoiler: faked]] evidence to prompt a confession from the murderer.

* {{Ladette}}: Kelly and Moon in ''Dead Famous'' fit the trope, with Geraldine referring to Kelly as "the little ladette slapper."

* YourCheatingHeart: For much of ''Blind Faith'' Trafford has an affair with Sandra Dee while his wife, Chantorria, is also having an affair with Confessor Bailey. They inhabit a [[CrapsackWorld dystopian future]] where marriage is not considered a permanent fixture and most marriages last only two to three years at most.

In America, he's probably best known for one line from his 2009 novel ''Meltdown.'' "'No!' Jimmy protested." The reason the quote became [[MemeticMutation so popular]] is because Music/OneDirection's Louis Tomlinson read it out of a copy of the book on one of the band's web diaries, and it has become a popular joke with Directioners ever since.

* CreatorThumbprint: His male heroes tend to be on the short side.