Second best sitcom according to viewers of the BBC sereies "Britains Best Sitcom"? Coming second only to Only Fools and Horses… I order a re-count!
I believe Blackadder deserved a lot more as the acting and the events which happen to Edmund Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson - the former Mr Bean) ... Read review
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cynical and self-serving lineage of various Edmund Blackadders from the muck of the Middle Ages to the frontline of World War I. In his pre-Mr Bean triumph, Britis...
cynical and self-serving lineage of various Edmund Blackadders from the muck of the Middle Ages to the frontline of World War I. In his pre-Mr Bean triumph, Britis...
was not yet part of the writing team, and Shakespearean parody featured prominently. Rowan Atkinson was at his best as a would-be Machiavellian medieval intriguer while Brian Blessed plays his gloriously over the top blustering militarist father.The episodes collected here are: "The Foretelling", in which Richard III, played by Peter Cook in a brilliant parody of Olivier, wins Bosworth only to get in an unseemly argument about a horse; "Born to be King" in which Edmund, lumbered with providing bearded ladies, morris dancers and eunuchs for a festival, discovers some indiscreet love letters; "The Archbishop" in which after his father has the Archbishop of Canterbury killed, Edmund starts his intrigues again; "The Queen of Spain's Beard" in which Blackadder's father's international schemes call for Edmund to make a dynastic marriage to Miriam Margolyes as the Infanta of Spain, and Jim Broadbent plays a peculiarly irritating interpreter; "Witchsmeller Pursuivant" in which Edmund falls foul of the demonic witchsmeller, played with more gusto than is quite credible by Frank Finlay; and "The Black Seal", wherein Edmund assembles a group of villains as his personal retinue (Rik Mayall plays a mad prisoner).On the DVD: No extras here at all, aside from subtitles in English, SDH, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, and chapter points within each episode. --Roz Kaveney
was not yet part of the writing team, and Shakespearean parody featured prominently. Rowan Atkinson was at his best as a would-be Machiavellian medieval intriguer while Brian Blessed plays his gloriously over the top blustering militarist father.The episodes collected here are: "The Foretelling", in which Richard III, played by Peter Cook in a brilliant parody of Olivier, wins Bosworth only to get in an unseemly argument about a horse; "Born to be King" in which Edmund, lumbered with providing bearded ladies, morris dancers and eunuchs for a festival, discovers some indiscreet love letters; "The Archbishop" in which after his father has the Archbishop of Canterbury killed, Edmund starts his intrigues again; "The Queen of Spain's Beard" in which Blackadder's father's international schemes call for Edmund to make a dynastic marriage to Miriam Margolyes as the Infanta of Spain, and Jim Broadbent plays a peculiarly irritating interpreter; "Witchsmeller Pursuivant" in which Edmund falls foul of the demonic witchsmeller, played with more gusto than is quite credible by Frank Finlay; and "The Black Seal", wherein Edmund assembles a group of villains as his personal retinue (Rik Mayall plays a mad prisoner).On the DVD: No extras here at all, aside from subtitles in English, SDH, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, and chapter points within each episode. --Roz Kaveney
series was not considered a great success, either among critics or many viewers, so a major rethink took place when it was recommissioned. On the writing front, future-Four Weddings And A Funeral scribe Richard Curtis was joined by Ben Elton, while the expensive War of the Roses-era sets were replaced by cosier Elizabethan ones. The most important change, however, was with Rowan Atkinson's eponymous character who, in the first series, had been a fairly weak-willed idiot but now emerged as the familiar Machiavellian fiend which would cement Atkinson's place in the pantheon of great British sitcom actors. Moreover, even if so many of the script's lines have been subsequently ripped off by lesser hands that it can't help but occasionally sound dated, the central performances of Atkinson, Tony Robinson (Baldrick), Tim McInnery (Lord Percy), Stephen Fry (Lord Melchett) and, of course, Miranda Richardson as the childishly psychotic Queen Elizabeth ("I love it when you get cross. Sometimes I think about having you executed just to see the expression on your face") remain note perfect. Yet the real pleasure for viewers may be in rediscovering the raft of excellent guest star performances--not least Tom "Doctor Who" Baker's berserk turn as a literally legless old sea dog given to guzzling his own urine long before the drinking water has run out. --Clark Collis
series was not considered a great success, either among critics or many viewers, so a major rethink took place when it was recommissioned. On the writing front, future-Four Weddings And A Funeral scribe Richard Curtis was joined by Ben Elton, while the expensive War of the Roses-era sets were replaced by cosier Elizabethan ones. The most important change, however, was with Rowan Atkinson's eponymous character who, in the first series, had been a fairly weak-willed idiot but now emerged as the familiar Machiavellian fiend which would cement Atkinson's place in the pantheon of great British sitcom actors. Moreover, even if so many of the script's lines have been subsequently ripped off by lesser hands that it can't help but occasionally sound dated, the central performances of Atkinson, Tony Robinson (Baldrick), Tim McInnery (Lord Percy), Stephen Fry (Lord Melchett) and, of course, Miranda Richardson as the childishly psychotic Queen Elizabeth ("I love it when you get cross. Sometimes I think about having you executed just to see the expression on your face") remain note perfect. Yet the real pleasure for viewers may be in rediscovering the raft of excellent guest star performances--not least Tom "Doctor Who" Baker's berserk turn as a literally legless old sea dog given to guzzling his own urine long before the drinking water has run out. --Clark Collis
all of the Richard Curtis/Ben Elton-scripted excursions. Having contrived to attain the Crown at the end of the third series, Rowan Atkinson's Edmund Blackadder is now reduced to a mere Captaincy in the trenches during World War I, with these episodes finding him shooting messenger pigeons, grumbling about Charlie Chaplin and unscrupulously evading his patriotic duty to pile over the top and be slaughtered pointlessly. Hugh Laurie plays the upper class silly arse to the hilt while Baldrick, who has grown progressively more stupid throughout the four series, can barely muster the intelligence to move from the spot. Blackadder Goes Forth stoutly refused to the end to abandon its relish for broad, puerile scatological puns: "Captain Darling will pump you thoroughly in the debriefing room," growls Stephen Fry's General Melchett. However, Blackadder's cynicism is laced with genuine despair at the recent madness of World War I. The closing moments of the final episode, as Blackadder and co. finally receive their orders, are handled with sober poignancy and became a frequent fixture in Remembrance Day TV scheduling. --David Stubbs
all of the Richard Curtis/Ben Elton-scripted excursions. Having contrived to attain the Crown at the end of the third series, Rowan Atkinson's Edmund Blackadder is now reduced to a mere Captaincy in the trenches during World War I, with these episodes finding him shooting messenger pigeons, grumbling about Charlie Chaplin and unscrupulously evading his patriotic duty to pile over the top and be slaughtered pointlessly. Hugh Laurie plays the upper class silly arse to the hilt while Baldrick, who has grown progressively more stupid throughout the four series, can barely muster the intelligence to move from the spot. Blackadder Goes Forth stoutly refused to the end to abandon its relish for broad, puerile scatological puns: "Captain Darling will pump you thoroughly in the debriefing room," growls Stephen Fry's General Melchett. However, Blackadder's cynicism is laced with genuine despair at the recent madness of World War I. The closing moments of the final episode, as Blackadder and co. finally receive their orders, are handled with sober poignancy and became a frequent fixture in Remembrance Day TV scheduling. --David Stubbs
court of Queen Elizabeth but a little down the social ladder. He's now butler to Hugh Laurie's congenitally stupid Prince Regent on the cusp of the 18th and 19th centuries, and if that wasn't bad enough he's still accompanied by Tony Robinson's dim-witted Baldrick, whose cunning plans never fail to make an impossible situation worse. Blackadder's desperate scheming and utter contempt for all he surveys hasn't changed, nor have the baroque complexities of the situations in which he becomes embroiled: from an anachronistic war of words with Dr Johnson (Robbie Coltrane relishing every syllable) to taking on the Scarlet Pimpernel at his own game, to fighting a duel with a psychopathic Duke of Wellington, Edmund's luck never seems to change. Richard Curtis and Ben Elton's sharp scripts have more fun with the period setting than ever before, as contemporary literary archetypes from Samuel Johnson to Jane Austen are ripe for lampooning. Howard Goodall's theme tune is updated to a glorious classical pastiche, while the extravagant costumes of the times hardly need altering to achieve the desired effect. The comedy is so good it seemed this could never be bettered, until Blackadder Goes Forth that is. --Mark Walker
court of Queen Elizabeth but a little down the social ladder. He's now butler to Hugh Laurie's congenitally stupid Prince Regent on the cusp of the 18th and 19th centuries, and if that wasn't bad enough he's still accompanied by Tony Robinson's dim-witted Baldrick, whose cunning plans never fail to make an impossible situation worse. Blackadder's desperate scheming and utter contempt for all he surveys hasn't changed, nor have the baroque complexities of the situations in which he becomes embroiled: from an anachronistic war of words with Dr Johnson (Robbie Coltrane relishing every syllable) to taking on the Scarlet Pimpernel at his own game, to fighting a duel with a psychopathic Duke of Wellington, Edmund's luck never seems to change. Richard Curtis and Ben Elton's sharp scripts have more fun with the period setting than ever before, as contemporary literary archetypes from Samuel Johnson to Jane Austen are ripe for lampooning. Howard Goodall's theme tune is updated to a glorious classical pastiche, while the extravagant costumes of the times hardly need altering to achieve the desired effect. The comedy is so good it seemed this could never be bettered, until Blackadder Goes Forth that is. --Mark Walker
history in this complete box set of all four series--from the snivelling War of the Roses-era creep in the Shakespearean parody that was the first series, to his final and unexpectedly noble demise in the trenches of the First World War in Blackadder Goes Forth. In between, of course, we see Edmund at the court of giggly Queen Elizabeth I in Blackadder II, now transformed into the Machiavellian cad audiences came to love so well (thanks to a character overhaul from writing team Ben Elton and Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson's note-perfect performance). Then in Blackadder III he's still scheming, but this time has moved a little down the social ladder as butler to the congenitally stupid Prince Regent on the cusp of the 18th and 19th centuries. In all four generations Blackadder is accompanied (or should that be hampered?) by his faithful yet terminally stupid servant Baldrick (Tony Robinson); and if that wasn't bad enough he also has to put up with the incompetence, pomposity and one-upmanship of a host of other contemporary hangers-on wonderfully played by regular costars Hugh Laurie, Tim McInnery, Stephen Fry, Miranda Richardson and Rik Mayall. Taken as a whole this sharp, cynical, occasionally satirical, toilet humour-obsessed and achingly funny saga deserves to stand alongside Fawlty Towers as one of the best ever British sitcoms. --Mark Walker
cynical and self-serving lineage of various Edmund Blackadders from the muck of the Middle Ages to the frontline of World War I. In his pre-Mr Bean triumph, British comic actor Rowan Atkinson played all five versions of Edmund, beginning with the villainous and cowardly Duke of Edinburgh, whose scheming mind and awful haircut seem to stand him in good stead to become the next Archbishop of Canterbury -- a deadly occupation if ever there was one. Among tales of royal dethronings, Black Death, witch-smellers (who root out spell-makers with their noses), and ghosts, Edmund is a perennial survivor who never quite gets ahead in multiple episodes. Jump to the Elizabethan era and Atkinson picks up the saga as Lord Edmund, who is perpetually courting favour from mad Queen Bess (Miranda Richardson) and is always walking a tightrope from which he can either gain the world or lose his head. Subjected to bizarre services for her majesty (at one point, Edmund is asked to do for potatoes what Sir Walter Raleigh did for tobacco), Edmund -- like his ancestor -- can never quite fulfill his larger ambitions. The next incarnation we encounter is in late-18th-century Regency England. This time, Blackadder is a mere butler to the idiotic Prince Regent (Hugh Laurie in a brilliantly buffoonish performance) and is caught in various misadventures with Samuel Johnson, Shakespearean actors, the Scarlet Pimpernel, and William Pitt the younger. With a brief stop in Victorian London for a Christmas special, the series concludes with several episodes set during the Great War. The new Edmund is a career army officer, but a scoundrel all the same. Shirking his duties whenever possible and taking advantage of any opportunity for undeserved reward, this final, deeply sour, and very funny Blackadder negotiates survival among a cadre of fools and dimwits. No small mention can be made of Atkinson's supporting cast, easily among the finest comic performers of their generation: besides Laurie and Richardson, Stephen Fry, Tony Robinson, and Tim McInnerny. --Tom Keogh
"I have a cunning plan...." Review ofBlackadder - Complete Blackadder (Limited Edition Box Set)by
steveking5000
Advantages: Price, Laughter, Acting, Disadvantages: No Extras,
...a re-count! I believe Blackadder deserved a lot more as the acting and the events which happen to Edmund Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson - the former Mr Bean) and his servant Baldrick (Tony Robinson - Time Team) are only to be laughed at again and again.
"Blackadder - The complete collection" is a 6 disc DVD limited edition box set of all the 4 Blackadder series, including the 3 specials Blackadders Christmas Carol, The Cavalier Years and the most recent ... ...unravels to reveal all the Blackadder Series of The Blackadder,, Blackadder II, Blackadder III, Blackadder Goes Forth and the extra discs of Blackadders Christmas Carol and Back and Forth (along with the Cavalier years), only previously available separately and not in the previous complete series box set available to fans of this well written hilarious series by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton (The first series was written by Richard Curtis and Rowan ...
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Advantages: Every single Blackadder adventure together for the first time. Disadvantages: None (except if you bought previous box sets which are now outdated).
...time Blackadder!
The original Blackadder was written by Richard Curtis (also Vicar of Dibley, Four Weddings & A Funeral and Notting Hill) and Rowan Atkinson. The pair met at Oxford and worked together on a number of projects including Not The Nine O'Clock News, before creating Blackadder in 1983. The first series met with a mixed reception and, as it had been shot on location and was thus expensive, was destined to remain a one off. Thankfully a ... ...costs were cut dramatically. Blackadder therefore became a studio-only production and Ben Elton replaced Atkinson on the writing side. Add arguably the best ensemble of comedy actors ever seen on TV and the rest, as they say, is history...
The Concept
The series follows Edmund Blackadder (Atkinson) in various different incarnations at important periods of British history. Each Blackadder is a distant relative of the previous one as is each Baldrick ...
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Advantages: All four series in full and two specials Disadvantages: Original pilot not included, picture quality poor in some areas.
The Blackadder series is undoubtidly one of the most loved British Sitcoms. This box set brings you all four of the TV series in full, plus "Blackadder's Christmas Carol"and "Blackadder back and fourth", the time Travelling special made for the Millenium.
There is much to enjoy here for the simple reason this is British comedy at its finest. There is little to say about the series that most people don't already know. Disc one contains all six episodes ... ...brilliant series that really cemented Blackadder as a nasty, devious and lovable anti-hero. This Blackadder lives in Elizabethen England and is a Favorite of Queen Elizabeth. In a brilliant piece of casting Mirranda Richardson plays "Queenie" as a spoilt, bratish vindictive School girl. Always reminding her courtiers "who's Queen?" Steven Fry is the snivelling Lord Melchet and we once again have Baldrick and Edmund's "Friend", the terminally stupid, ...
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Advantages: conveniantly packaged, good series, lots of laughs, very amusing Disadvantages: quite short series
I purchased the complete Blackadder collection for £35 at HMV and it was certainly money well spent. I think the acting and humour is top notch and it features 4 of televisions greatest actors of all time "Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson). very wry and witty this is a great box set to buy if you want some top quality BBC made entertainment. However, the entire 4 series only adds up to 14 hours,so i feel that the box set ... ...contains a diffrent picture of Blackadder with accompanying witty text for each dvd. On buying the Blackadder boxset you may assume that you would only get the 4 series but in fact as an added bonus the boxset includes Blackadder's christmas carol and Blackadder back and forth. The boxset contains no special features disc but i think this was purposefully left out to reduce costs. On the front of the boxset it says special edition but i feel this ...
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Advantages: Hilariously funny!!! Disadvantages: Not for the easily offended or slow
Blackadder is THE classic british comedy, in my humble opinion anyway. This DVD set provides the perfect answer to people like me who love blackadder but never can find all the series to buy separately. Also, there are the special extras the christmas carol version and, my favourite, the blackadder through time stint. It is hilariously funny and as ever packed full of dry wit featuring all your favourite characters from blackadder past and present, ...
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![Blackadder: Complete Series 3 (Blackadder III) [1987]](http://picnic.ciao.com/uk/65512717.jpg)
