Amazon.com reviews for
"The Black Adder" (1983) More at IMDbPro »

Complete Black Adder (8pc) (vhs):

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

Black Adder Goes Forth, Part 1 (vhs):

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

Black Adder Series 1 Part 1 (vhs):

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

Black Adder Series 1 Part 2 (vhs):

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