BALDRICK!!!! (Blackadder)

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	Blackadder
Date:	10/11/09 (55 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Brilliantly clever comedy, scriptwriting, acting

Disadvantages: 1st season isn't so great

A classic British comedy great, Blackadder is a series that nearly didn't make it past the first series. Billed initially as a comic way of looking through history, it intended to portray a dimwit and his various acquaintances in different periods of time. Starring the excellent Rowan Atkinson, it portraayed the title character, Edmund Blackadder, as intellectually inferior to everyone else, hoping that we as viewers would find it entertaining.

The style was greeted with criticism and a mediocre fanbase, and so they decided to switch for the second series, making Blackadder the incredibly clever noble that most of us have come to know and love, and casting Tony Robinson as Bladrick, Blackadder's dimwit sidekick. This setup worked much better, and showed off Atkinson's various acting skills immensely. The actor was to later return as a bit of a dimwit with the Mr Bean series, but for the remainder of the Blackadder seasons, he was the one with the brains.

The show features the Blackadder line throughout important periods of history, with various characters such as Queen Elizabeth included to denote the time period. A regular cast meant that the roles could be developed, and actors such as Tim McInnery, Fry & Laurie, Ade Edmundson et al found their feet brilliantly. Miranda Richardson was also excellent as 'Queenie'. Yet the whole thing wouldn't have worked nearly as well without Atkinson and Robinson, who provided situational comedy as well as clever portrayal of wordplay, the scriptwriters really earning their crust.

It is a series that saw incredible success, running for a good number of series. If you catch a repeat, it's often on the GOLD or Dave channels, and features mildly adult humour at times, so it may not be suitable for younger viewers. It's well worth a watch, and the DVD boxsets are also available to buy to watch the series at your own comfort. A hilarious show that nearly didn't make it, I highly recommend you watch Blackadder, from start to finish.

Summary: Historical comedy from the BBC