BLACKADDER star Sir Tony Robinson hit the general election campaign trail in Wirral today with a cunning plan to get voters to the polling booth.

The actor, writer, presenter and political activist - who played Rowan Atkinson's happy-go-lucky but long-suffering sidekick Baldrick in the hit BBC comedy - read excerpts from his book Pets during a visit to Woodchurch Methodist Church this morning.

The 68-year-old, who also presents popular Channel Four archaeology show Time Team, met children and parents.

He also revealed plans for two new series - one using 3D footage from the Second World War and the other which has echoes of Time Team.

Today's visit had been arranged by Labour's parliamentary candidate for West Wirral, Margaret Greenwood.

Sir Tony, whose wife is from Wirral, told the Globe: "I was happy to be invited to come along and encourage people to remember how important it is to vote.

"It's terribly important that we get people into parliament who are absolutely determined to defend, not just defend but build things like the NHS.

"I think the Bedroom tax is one of the most offensive taxes since the Poll Tax; the idea that 400,000 disabled people should receive such a negative impact is obscene.

"What on earth are we doing directing punitive taxes at them while dropping the 50p tax band?

"If that's anybody's idea of a fair society, then they're not living on the same planet as a lot of voters.

"There's all the difference in the world in believing that and getting out to the polls and voting.

“The thing about Britain is you don't just have to moan when things go wrong, you can get out and do something about it.

"I'm also an ambassador for the Alzheimer's Society and I think the idea of amalgamating medical care with social care is just fantastic."

"My latest book Pets is part of a series based on the notion that everything in the world is interesting and wonderful.

"I am passionate about education. I had a spat with education secretary Michael Gove, when he said teachers shouldn't be allowed to use Blackadder in the classroom.

"It was such a stupid, joyless notion that really exposes the attitiude of the Tories toward education."

On future projects, he said: "I'm off to Berlin to start shooting a new series for Discovery about World War Two, using 3D pictures that were around at the time.

"There's a lot of footage that hasn't been seen before. 

"Hitler had a lot of 3D books, which pictures of him smiling. You turn over the pages and there's Goring smiling away and there's one of Goebbels smiling and so on.

"It's really creepy stuff but, for a historian, really interesting.

"After that I'm making a new series for Channel Four called Time Crackers. It's my biggest new enterprise for Channel Four since Time Team and has some of the same echoes of the show, but that's all I'm going to tell you. 

"Hopefully, viewers will really enjoy it. I know Channel Four are really excited about it."

West Wirral Labour candidate Margaret Greenwood said: "We invited people from the local community to come along and we had a really great response.

"I think people have realised that the general election is not far away and that it's important they get out and vote."