Black Adder
The Black
Adder is a British Comedy Series starring Rowan Atkinson as the title
role. The series spans from the 15th century all the way up to World
War I, with some stops in between, and one stop in the future.
One of the most notable
things about the series is the acidic tongue, and quick wit, of
Edmund Blackadder, and the uncanny way in which he seems to have a
hand in all the important situations of Europe's history--and in the
slick way he gets himself into and out of trouble.
He is accompanied through
the series by one faithful servant, Baldrick, whose intelligence is
comparable to that of a rotting potato. Baldrick is even offered to
become an MP (putting such things on his form as a criminal record of
fraud and sexual deviance!). Their families are interwined in a
centuries old relationship of servant and master. You can't help but
wonder how the two families managed to reproduce. Other familiar
faces continually pop up over the centuries--such as Lord Flasheart,
and Lord Percy Percy as well as good old Melchett (steven Fry).
Links to other related
pages:
Biography
|
A well written biography of
all his works and his hobbies and passions. Some information
was supplied by Jeff mason, but I have also edited and added
to it.
|
Filmography
|
This page is simply a list
of almost all the things he has ever done and neraly in
chronological order. He has played some minor roles in other
things which isn't included or else the list would be too
long.
|
Black Adder Episode Guide:
Here is guide
through the first three series, with a small paragrapgh or two on
each to give you an idea of what it is all about. THis aims to give
you the information on the outside. Of course to experience the full
comedy value, you should buy the video. I bought one recently and am
still watching it over and over again. And, if you haven't got the
time to read this now, print this out so that if and when you want to
buy the video you can choose which one is the bets. I personally
prefer his 2nd and 4th serues, but I leave it up to you. The Choice
Is Yours!
Written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton with Rowan
Atkinson's help, with additional dialogue by William Shakespeare and
other interesting people.
Series 1
The Black Adder, otherwise known as Edmund, Duke of
Edinburgh, is the younger, almost unnoticed son of a medieval king; a
bitter and twisted youth of unwholesome appearance, whose burning
ambition to wear his father's crown results In deeds of unspeakable
treachery. With the help of his henchmen Percy and Baldrick, the
Adder goes about his his business.
This piece of alternative history, described as the 15th
century equivalent of the Hitler Diaries -a lurid account of a
little-known but eventful chapter in England's glorious past.
Episode 1: The Foretelling
The story begins on the eve of the Battle of Bosworth
Field, 21st August, 1485. By accidentally decapitating his great
uncle Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field, Edmund secures the
crown of England for his father. But his father knew that he was
responsible for the killing as well as the escape of their great
enemy Henry Tudor, Edmund's life would very probably be forfeit. It
takes all his ingenuity, or rather that of his henchmen Percy and
Baldrick, to get out of a very tricky situation - made even trickier
by the sudden reappearance of Richard III as a ghostly apparition.
Then it dawns on Edmund that a prince of the realm has
certain privileges, and who better to start taking advantage of them,
Who knows, if he plays his cards right he may one day be King of
England. But first he needs a new image and name to match. Enter the
Black Adder, whose slimy reign of terror is about to begin.
Episode 2: Born to be King
Introduction: In 1486, the second year of Richard IV's
historic reign and also the year in which the egg replaced the worm
as the lowest form of currency, King Richard departed England on a
crusade against the Turks.
He left behind him his beloved son Prince Harry to rule as
Regent in his stead.....
...and his slimy son Edmund to do the tasks most befitting
him.
With the King gone Edmund rejoices. "At last, a chance for
some real power!" But it's not to be. Harry sets Edmund the task of
organizing the "frolics" - and the drains - for the double
celebration of St. Leonard,s day and their father,s return from the
Crusades. Edmund is inwardly furious. At Harry's command, he has had
to exercise the royal sheep, straighten the royal portraits and now
this. Where will he find the Morris dancers, eunuchs and bearded
ladies at such short notice, as well as seeing to the drains? Why is
Harry such as bastard? "If only he were, my Lord," says Baldrick,
"then you would be Regent now."
Inspired by Baldrick,s remark, the Adder wastes no time in
attempting to discredit his brother - not to mention his mother. But
he succeeds only in casting doubt on his own legitimacy, very nearly
losing all his land and titles to a wild and hairy Scot who could
also be his half brother.
Episode 3: The Archbishop
Introduction: England, 1487. The battle between the church
and the crown continues to rage and the Duke of Winchester, the
greatest landowner in England, is dying.
After two years of Good King Richard's reign the English
landscape is littered with dead Archbishops of Canterbury, the
victims d a bitter dispute between Church and State over the
acquisition of land. Pending the death of a wealthy landowner it k
customary for both establishments to try to persuade the dying man to
leave his lands to them. Whenever the Church is successful, the King
shows his displeasure by arranging for the Archbishop of Canterbury
to meet with an unfortunate accident
By this means the office has Just become vacant again and
Edmund is confident that his deadliest rival, Prince Harry, will be
appointed to the vacancy. But the King picks his other son for the
job, and between his investiture and his excommunication Archbishop
Edmund the Reluctant finds life a difficult thing to hold on to. At
one point, Percy becomes Bishop of Ramsgate and Baldrick is elevated
to the clerical status of "Brother." And Edmund, Percy and Baldrick,
dressed as nuns, fight for their lives in a swashbuckling display of
swordsmanship.
Episode 4:The Infanta (The Queen of
Spain's Beard)
Supposing the Infanta to be a beautiful princess, Edmund
is happy to go along with his father,s scheme until he meets the lady
face to face. It looks as if nothing short of another European crisis
will save Edmund from the clutches of this amorous but unglamorous
Spanish princess. Edmund is saved by politics at the last minute,
only to be thrown into holy matrimony with the (really) young and
beautiful Princess Leia of Hungary, who very much likes to be read to
at bedtime.
Episode 5: Witchsmeller
Pursivant
The WitchsmelIer is held in the highest regard although it
soon becomes apparent that the man is mad and decidedly evil.
Furthermore' he takes a dislike to Edmund, "The Great Grumbledook,"
and contrives to make him Public enemy Number One. Will the Black
Adder and his henchmen beburned at the stake as servants of Satan?
Not if the Queen can help it, and not if the Adders luck runs true.
Viewers of this episode are treated to the sight of Blackadder, Percy
and Baldrick with shaved heads.
Episode 6: The Black Seal
England, 1498. St. Juniper's Day - the day on which the
King would lavish new honours upon his kinfolk. The Black Adder
decides that he has been humiliated once too often by his father the
King after he is stripped of all his titles and honors except for
Warden d the Royal Privy. "It will not do," he hisses at Percy and
Baldrick before dismissing them from his service forever.
So Edmund spurned his friends and began his quest for
glory. With hatred in his heart, he set forth to recruit the six most
dangerous men in England to help him seize the throne. But there is
one more evil - the Adder's childhood rival Philip of Burgundy (alias
the Hawk). His return after 15 years of waiting and plotting causes
disruption tin the Adders camp and triggers a gruesome chain of
events from which even Edmund cannot escape.
Series 2
In the early years of the reign of Elizabeth I, Lord
Edmund Blackadder is a young peer-about-town and is the bastard great
grandson of the medieval Black Adder of Series I.
Episode 1: BELLS
England 1560. The congenital defects of the Blackadder
family resurface horribly in the melting pot of history. Edmund falls
in love with his new manservant, who turns out to be a woman in
disguise. To the tune of "Greensleeves," Blackadder and his
manservant, "Bob," take a romantic walk through the English
countryside, while on the screen scroll the words "Greensleeves,"
"The Rain It Raineth Every Day," "Hey Nonny I Love You," "My Love is
a Prick (On a Tudor Rose)," "Hot Sex Madrigal in The Middle of My
Tights," "And Many Many More!!!" Edmund's wedding plans are spoiled
when Lord Flasheart appears on the scene.
Episode 2: HEAD
Edmund is appointed Head Executioner. In order to get the
middle of the week off, he efficiently rearranges the schedule of
executions. This causes a slight problem when one of the early
victims of the axe, Lord Farrow, gets a pardon after his Lady Farrow
is given permission by the Queen to see him. Edmund begins to cheer
up when he finds out that Baldrick executed the wrong man anyway.
Episode 3: POTATO
The return of Sir Walter " Oh What a Big Ship I've Got"
Raleigh is a matter of supreme indifference to Blackadder. But when
Sir Walter's discovery of the potato results in honors and country
estates bestowed on him by the Queen, Edmund decides to act. To
impress the Queen, Blackadder makes plans to sail around the Cape of
Good Hope, certain death to mariners. At his departure the Queen
instructs Edmund, "Bring me back a vegetable."
Edmund's cunning plan is to spend six months in the
Dordogne in France, then sail for home pretending to have sailed
round the Cape. Unfortunately, Captain Rum only knows the route
around the Isle of Wight.
Two years later, Edmund returns By now, the Queen is sick
of explorers. She demands presents or Blackadder will be executed.
(Sir Walter was only let off because "he blubbed on the way to the
block.") Among Blackadder's gifts are special bottles of wine for Sir
Walter and Melchett.
Episode 4: MONEY
The clergy in Elizabethan times had some unpleasant
methods of chastising their flocks. Blackadder is visited by the baby
eating Bishop of Bath and Wells, the assistant manger of the Bank of
the Black Monks of St. Herod, who wants to collect on a debt of
£1,000. Edmund comes up with a plan "so cunning you could brush
your teeth with it." The problem is that Blackadder is always going
on about how rich he is to the Queen and so she meanwhil takes away
some money by plaing practical jokes. But as always there is a
cunning plan.
Episode 5: BEER
Edmund hosts his pious aunt and uncle, the Whiteadders,
are two most fanatical puritans inEngland," at dinner. Percy and
Baldrick prepare turnip surprise for dinner. Through an unfortunate
lapse of memory, Edmund must simultaneously hold a drinking
competition with Lord Melchett. Let one under the table gets 10,000
florins from the loser. This episode is not seen in some airings
presumably because d the appearance of "comedy" breasts and a turnip
that' in Percy's word, " is exactly the same shape as a thingy."
Episode 6: CHAINS
Kidnapping is rampant. After the Queen signs a
proclamation that only one more ransom will be paid "cross my heart
and hope to be spanked until my bottom goes purple'" Edmund and
Melchett are captured by a German who plans to overthrow the English
throne and who happens to be a master of disguise. And who happens to
be an embarrassing part of almost everyone1s pasts. The queen can't
decide who to save and spends the ransom money on a fancy dress ball
at the palace. Blackadder and Melchett escape just in time to attend
their final social engagement In 1566.
Series 3
Alas the golden age of wealth, power and discovery has not
rubbed off on Blackadder the Third. in amadhouse version of the court
of George III, Blackadder finds himself tin much reduced
circumstances as a valet to the Prince Regent.
Episode 1: DISH AND DISHONESTY
(ROTTEN BOROUGHS)
The scene shifts to Regency England where George III is no
longer the power tin the land - "which is a bit of luck since at
present he thinks he's a sausage and keeps throwing the mustard so no
one will want him for dinner" - and the Prime Minister, Pitt the
Elder, rules.
Blackadder is butler and confidant to George, the Prince
Regent. In a bid to outwit Pitt the Younger and his brother, Pitt the
Even Younger, Blackadder enters his servant Baldrick - minimum bribe
level, one turnip for Parliament with the slogan "a rotten candidate
for a rotten borough." In a bid to save the Prince Regent from ruin,
Blackadder boasts, "I've got a plan so cunning you could put a tail
on it and call it a weasel."
Watch for the political commentator for the vital
by-election at Dunny-on-the-Wold, the great-great-great grandfather
of Vincent Hanna.
Episode 2: INK AND INCAPABILITY
It is the golden age of English literature - Byron,
Shelley and Coleridge (billed in the credits as romantic junkie
poets) are to be found sipping coffee in Mrs. Miggins' pie shop and
Dr. Johnson requests the Prince Regent to act as his literary patron.
Prince George decides he needs to improve his mind. He wants people
to say, 3That George, he's as clever as a stick in a bucket of pig
swill." So he agrees to act as Dr. Johnson1s patron.
But while Dr. Johnson has spent 18 hours a day for the
last ten years penning his "comprehensive and encyclopedic
implementation of his premeditated orchestration of the Anglo-Saxon
tongue" - i.e. dictionary Blackadder, too, has been busy with his
quill. "Edmund, A Butler's Tale," a novel in 400 sizzling chapters,
is Blackadder1s magnum opus written under the pseudonym Gertrude
Perkins. Said opus was submitted to Dr. Johnson and received no
response, and Edmund is suffering from a bad case of sour grapes.
After Baldrick accidentally uses Dr. Johnson's dictionary
for firewood, Edmund must rewrite it before Dr. Johnson finds out.
Will he do it?
Episode 3: NOB AND NOBILITY
The revolution rages through France. Madame Guillotine
claims the lives of many aristocrats. Will Blackadder, the fearless
and wily butler to George, the Prince Regent, cross the Channel to
help rescue these unfortunate noblemen?
Blackadder is becoming heartily sick of the francophile
fever sweeping England and the hero-worship of the elusive Scarlet
Pimpernel. London, according to Blackadder, is full of
"garlic-chewing whoopsies crying 'ooh la la' and looking for sympathy
all the time Just because their fathers had their heads cut off."
Even Baldrick sports the latest fashion: stick-on scarlet pimples,
the Pimpernel's trademark.
A £1,000 wager is sufficient to turn Blackadder into
Le Adder Noir, but little does he realize that his would-be heroic
endeavors will require the services of the real Scarlet Pimpernel
himself. This episode is no longer aired due to a dispute over the
rights to the use of the "Scarlet Pimpernel" name. However, this
episode appears on one of the Blackadder III videos currently
available.
Episode 4: SENSE AND SENILITY
Blackadder the Third is living in volatile times. As he
tells his master George, "the American Revolution threw off your
father, the French Revolution murdered brave King Louis, and there
have been tremendous rumblings in Prussia, although apparently that's
something to do with the sausages."
A trip to the theatre brings anarchic rumblings previously
close to the Prince and Blackadder. Perhaps the masque Blackadder has
penned for George III's birthday celebrations at Drury Lane will help
fix the blame on Pitt for the troubles of the day. But the Prince
insists on being schooled to deliver his speech by the great
tragedians of the day, Keanrick and Mossop. Blackadder suspects them
of being anarchists.
Episode 5: CAPE AND
CAPABILITY
Blackadder begins the search for a rich wife for the
Prince, unfortunately a far from simple quest. "Out of the 262
eligible princesses in Europe, 165 are over 80, 47 are under 10 and
39 are mad," moans Blackadder. Even the mad ones would have been
ideal if only "they hadn't all got married last week in Munich to the
same horse!"
So Blackadder looks closer to home and finds one Amy
Hardwood, daughter of a wealthy industrialist and a "light fluffy
bunny of a girl." But the Prince's idea of tender wooing is to "shin
up the drainpipe and ask her if she'll take a consignment of German
sausage."
So Blackadder has another money making idea. If he puts on
a mask and cloak and saddles up Baldrick, he could emulate the
notorious highwayman known as the Shadow," who is halfway to being
the new Robin Hood. Halfway because "he steals from the rich but he
hasn't got round to giving it to the poor yet!"
Episode 6: DUEL AND DUALITY
The Prince Regent has put his foot in It. Actually, he's
put both feet in it after a "night of ecstasy with a pair of
Wellingtons." Unfortunately the uncle of the Wellingtons in question
is the Iron Duke who has sworn to kill in cold blood anyone who takes
advantage of his little nieces.
Baldrick comes up with a cunning plan (which is probably
why he failed to get the Job of Kensington village idiot) that
Blackadder could change places with the Prince to protect the heir to
the throne. Blackadder comes up with an even better idea - his
Scottish cousin MacAdder can swap places with him at the crucial
duel.
Series Four
Now Black Adder is whipped away to
the front lines, where he really is not too keen on the "Big Push"
and tries everything to get out of running over the top of the
trenches and dying within the first ten seconds. 1917, here he
comes!
Episode 1: CAPTAIN COOK
It's the Big Push and it's time to
get out of it. First Black Adder cheats in a painting competition to
become the War Artist in Paris but ends up drawing enemy positions in
no-man's land being lit up " like christmas trees" by the flares.
This doesn't work and so they volunteer to become chefs to General
Melchett and Captain Darling where they get rather a lot of custard
out of a rather small cat!
Episode 2: CORPORAL
PUNISHMENT
The orders to advance come through,
but as always there is the "old communications problem" and there is
something about a lion up Darling's bottom. Then the telegram to
"Catpain Black Udder" comes through but who is he? Then the King's
carrier pigeon is sent and shot for lunch and the court is in
process.
So, Black Adder faces the firing
squad, he would have at least got out of the war, but a bit dead! But
in the end, scheming as he is, he manages to get out and send
Baldrick and George (The greatest mind in legal history) on a trip
out into No-man's land. "God is very quick these days"
Episode 3: MAJOR STAR
A show to boost the men's morale is
put on. Melchett discovers that Black Adder is perfect for the job.
Bladrick does a slug balancing act to impersonnate Charlie Chaplain,
George dresses up as the beutiful Georgina who Melchett falls in love
with. The show is a success. But then something goes wrong, I leave
the rest up to you ......
Episode 4: PRIVATE PLANE
The 20-minuters are the people who's
average life expectancy in the air is 20 minutes. Black Adder joins
up and , not surprisingly is shot down and captured. Oh damn! But
then just as he thinks he is out of the war by teaching German Nuns
Home economics, Flasheart saves him. Black Adder isn't too keen to
return and when he gets back, his stark raving mad commanding officer
refuses him a week's leave to recouperate.
Episode 5: GENERAL HOSPITAL
When there is spy in the hospital
where George is lying with wounds from a bomb explosion an immediate
suspect, Mr Smith with a German accent comes into play. Black Adder
is told to rout out the spy. Then Darling comes on to the scene after
being shot in the foot by Melchett as he is told to spy on their spy
as he is spying on the German spy. With a little bit of love and
questioning BA finds the spy. But then as the firing squad shoot the
spy it turns out George has been writing letters to his German uncle
telling of the army movements.
Episode 6: GOODBYEE!
Well, as the war drws to a close
Black adder cannot escape the final Big Push and after trying t get
out of it by pretending to be mad, they all go over the top, and
well, the next bit is rather predicatable....
Written and edited by: Nick
Rowan
So, there you have it. For this information I would like
to thank Henrik Secher and Rowan Atkinson & Richard Curtis.
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