Amazon.com Essentials:
One of the best comedy series ever to
emerge from England, Black Adder traces the deeply 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-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 favor 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--as with 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
Amazon.com video review:
The final stop in the Black Adder epic is this fourth
series, set on the western front in 1917, deep into World War I. (Fans
know there is also a Victorian-era Black Adder Christmas
special that precedes this.) This time, Captain Edmund Blackadder,
the most cynical, selfish, and sour of them all, is surrounded by
fools and half-wits as he tries to negotiate survival. The major male
players from the preceding series are all in this one, creating one of
the strongest concentrations of British comic talent in one place
since Monty Python. This collection includes "Captain Cook," in which
Edmund becomes the official "war artist"; plus "Corporal Punishment,"
concerning Edmund's breaching of regulations via cannibalism; and
"Major Star," in which the men on the front have to confront fallout
from the Russian Revolution. --Tom Keogh
Amazon.com video review:
The brilliant and inspired Black Adder comic saga
begins with this collection of episodes from the life of Edmund
Blackadder, Duke of Edinburgh (Rowan Atkinson), a.k.a. the Black
Adder. Set in "the really dark part" of the Dark Ages, the stories
concern the villainous and cowardly Duke's sundry schemes. "The
Foretelling" features a guest appearance from the late Peter Cook as
the ghost of Richard III, who's come around to haunt our "hero." "Born
to Be King" pits Edmund's scheming mind and awful haircut against the
treachery and kilt of a dancing Scotsman. Finally, "The Archbishop" is
the surreal story of a landscape littered with the bodies of dead
Archbishops of Canterbury--a post for which Edmund is next in
succession. Wonderful, funny stuff from Mr. Bean's alter ego. --Tom
Keogh
Amazon.com video review:
The Dark Ages comedy continues with "The Queen of Spain's
Beard," a knee-slapper starring Miriam Margolyes as the Spanish royal
whom Edmund (Rowan Atkinson) lures toward his own nefarious
ends. "Witchsmeller Pursuivant" is a hilarious episode in which Edmund
sends for a "witchsmeller" to root out the witch who gave the king
Black Death. "The Black Seal" tells of Edmund's involvement in the
dethroning of a king. Indispensable for Atkinson fans. With Tony
Robinson as Baldrick. --Tom Keogh
