I’d like another season . . . one set today! Maybe Blackadder the Fifth could be a cynical M.P. or government minister, or a journalist in one of the Murdoch papers . . . something where he has some upwardly mobile goal to strive for.
About the episode where the actors teach public speaking to Prince George – what were the words to that bad-luck-aversion formula they repeated every time they heard “Macbeth”? No matter how many times they did it, all I could make out was “Hot potato, blablabla, blabla make amends!”
Was there ever anything to the rumor that Atkinson was going to be cast as Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire? I understand they’ve actually given the part to John Malkovich – does anyone on this thread think RA would have been a better choice?
There is a subtudimous parsimosity in this scene that many people extracognify. Robbie Coltraine had recently starred as Johnson in a one man show on the London stage, to criticulous contafibularities. His appearence in Blackadder was based on his stage role.
I believe that the opening theme is the same tune for all four series…just arranged with different instruments, etc. to set the mood for the time period. The first and second series feature lyrics (same tune) for the ending theme…the second series even goes so far as to change the lyrics for each episode!
It doesn’t sound like “Off his drawers” to me…I’ll have to watch that one again.
BrainGlutton, the minimovie “Blackadder Back and Forth” is set in today…well, to be specific, it’s set on New Years Eve, 1999. I won’t spoil it for you, but, while I’m not sure what Blackadder does for a living in 1999, he certainly has some posh digs, as it were. He must not have fallen very far since Army captain…in fact, perhaps the family fortunes have been regained just a bit (note, I’m talking about the beginning of the movie!)
What always gets to me in ‘Goodbyeee’ is when Kevin Darling says, with such quiet dignity, ’ rather hoped I’d get through the whole show; go back to work at Pratt & Sons; keep wicket for the Croydon gentlemen; marry Doris… Made a note in my diary on my way here. Simply says, “Bugger.”’
It doesn’t read as well as he says it…but I have to admit, that understatement of realising what’s going to happen…crikey…it’s heartbreaking, really. Or when the shadow of the driver to take him to the front appears…
Right! Must lighten the mood back up…er…
There was a modern incarnation of Edmund, just for promos for the Queen’s Jubilee Concert, where he appeared as the Keeper of the Lawnsprinkler, and mostly moaned about how if he had his way, this whole thing would be called off: ‘Now absolutely not! We don’t want thousands of people wandering around here willy-nilly, leaving orange peels on the petunias and frightening the corgies. I said to her, I said you’re the Queen not Fatboy Slim!’
I wanted to check the Mossop and Keanrick Macbeth routine, so I pulled down my copy of the complete Black Adder scripts (Black Adder, The Whole Damn Dynasty 1485-1917: Penguin Books, New York, N.Y., 2000, retails for $16.00 but I got it for $9.95 from Edmond Hamilton Booksellers) to check, and here’s what it says:
That’s it. The script doesn’t explain what it is the actors say.
This thread has brought me so many happy smiles. God, I love this show. I discovered it totally by accident, just flipping around on the dial. I made a point of showing it to all my friends, and every one of them became a fan. How could they not?
And I’m sorry but the best line ever is simply this:
I read that something like this was going to be the plot for the proposed Blackadder film (which Curtis, Elton and Atkinson still insist will one day be made). Supposedly Edmund in the 1960s auditions and then turns down a guitar group from Liverpool, who then sign with some mincing furniture salesman named Epstein …
Seriously - when I started grad school around 1988, I raved about Black Adder to one of my roomates, who told me he’d seen adverts for it on the box – I urged him to watch it, and he reported back he didn’t see why it was such a rave. So I said, all right, we’ll watch an episode together, cos I couldn’t believe he didn’t find it funny (as the humour was right up his street) – I didn’t realise he was looking at it on A & E, where it was shown in a 30 minute time slot, probably reduced to about 15 minutes to fit in all the adverts :eek:
Honestly, the episodes were so chopped up that they literally made no sense.
Too right; I was lucky enough to tape the first three seasons straight from PBS, which showed them uncut. I only saw the fourth series on A&E, and while it was still funny, it felt off; you knew it was just cut to shit. (Although our PBS outlet did preface them with a mature-content warning, which amused some British friends no end when I hauled out the tape for them.)
Needless to say, I’ve since acquired season four on DVD, and have seen it as God (and Field Marshall Sir Douglas “Viciously Sharp Slice of Mango” Haig) intended.
Unless I’m mistaken, A & E wouldn’t show ‘Beer’ at all, and for some reason the series 3 about Le Pimpernel Scarlet (honestly, just this today, before I saw this thread, I was talking to a friend who was complaining about a holiday trip wherein everything went wrong, and my sympathetic response was, ‘Well, next time you must be certain to chose Revolutionary France for your holiday…’)
The cuts didn’t make it feel off so much as ‘empty’…
I also have the script book mentioned above, now packed away, and it’s brill – there are a lot of extra essays and fun bits included, for example Pvt Baldrick’s school record, and Capt Darling’s request for a transfer, etc.
My first online screen name was “Slckbldr,” because of the old eight-letter limit. People called me “Slacky”.
I have to join in the speaking up for the unfairly maligned first season. I had to watch it several times before I caught everything that was going on and all the jokes they had flying, but I think in many ways, the first season blows the others away. Later seasons were presented more clearly, but for sheer volume of humor, none of them can hold a candle to season one.
Still. “Am I happy to see you, or did I just put a CANOE in my pocket?!” is a great line.
I believe the main reason many people see such a style (and humour) difference between series one and the rest is that Ben Elton joining the script writing team. ***Much ** * to Blackadders benefit IMHO.
This is before Ben turned to writing piss poor London musicals…