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Hey you Brits; put down the Crest and help me out here...

An old penpal from Kent once sent me an audio tape of a British TV show called "Black Adder", and I thought it was hilarious. A few years later I rented the video. Unfortunately, it was the SAME group of episodes as was on the audio tape! Something about rewriting the Dictionary, IIRC.)

Just recently, I saw about four videotapes with the name "Black Adder" on it, but they looked...different. They still had the same star, "Mr. Bean", but I thought this show took place in the 1600's, and was centered on the Prince of Wales? These others I saw had Mr. Bean in a British officer's uniform from what looked like WW1.

Does the "Black Adder" show comprise a history of this guy or his ancestors through time, or what?

I'm an Aussie, but I think I can help.

It goes like this:

Black Adder (1983): Set in late 1400's.

Blackadder II (1985): Set in late 1500's. Elizabeth I is queen, and is portrayed as being a few pints short of a barrel. Also, the Blackadder / Baldrick relationship is reversed - Lord Blackadder is the smart one, while his servant Baldrick is totally clueless.

Blackadder the Third (1987): Set around 1800. Blackadder is butler to the utterly incompetent Prince George. Baldrick is still the lowly servant. Lord Byron, Percy Shelley and that guy who wrote one of the first English dictionaries (I've temporarily forgotten his name) eack make a cameo in one episode.

Blackadder Goes Forth (1989): Blackadder is a cynical Captain in the British Army in WWI. Baldrick is (surprise surprise) a moronic private.

I believe it is descendants who happen to look like him.

And it goes down through time.

It is also on DVD. The original covers the time after the War of the Roses, the second, the end of the 16th and early 17th century, the third eand of the 18th century to beginning of the 19th, and the fourth WWI.

Oh, I remember Blackadder I: "You cut off me bloody head!"

Rathark wrote:Lord Byron, Percy Shelley and that guy who wrote one of the first English dictionaries (I've temporarily forgotten his name) eack make a cameo in one episode.

It was Samuel Johnson.

http://us.imdb.com/Quotes?0092324

I just remember that if you're tried for witchcraft, never say you can do the Lord's Prayer forwards and backwards.

Basically, it's all about the Black Adder family line along with Baldrick and several others who emulate various people in history from the middle ages to the Renaissance to World War I.

There are also loads of specials like an Xmas special with Black Adder as Scrooge, but these are not all on VHS or DVD except the 1999 special "Black Adder: Back and Forth" made by Sky for the Millenium Dome which was a 45 minute special when Baldrick makes a time machine (somehow!).

Admiral Valdemar wrote:There are also loads of specials like an Xmas special with Black Adder as Scrooge

Now that I want to see.

His Divine Shadow wrote:

Admiral Valdemar wrote:There are also loads of specials like an Xmas special with Black Adder as Scrooge

Now that I want to see.

If you look hard enough, I think there is a screenplay of it on the Web.

Admiral Valdemar wrote:

His Divine Shadow wrote:

Admiral Valdemar wrote:There are also loads of specials like an Xmas special with Black Adder as Scrooge

Now that I want to see.

If you look hard enough, I think there is a screenplay of it on the Web.

It has been released on video, although I don't know how easy it is to find. The Black Adder Box set also has it.

johnmarkley wrote:

Admiral Valdemar wrote:

His Divine Shadow wrote: Now that I want to see.

If you look hard enough, I think there is a screenplay of it on the Web.

It has been released on video, although I don't know how easy it is to find. The Black Adder Box set also has it.

Ah, that reminds me.

*Puts Black Adder complete series box set on list of other future box sets to get along with NGE, The Prisoner, Cowboy Bebop and 24 Day Two*

I have all four on DVD. They rule.

Can't believe you didn't know this stuff about BLACK ADDER, Poe!!!!!

Note: the first season is undoubtedly the worst of the lot. Black Adder is much better as the smart one.

Oh, and Black Adder Goes Forth (Black Adder in WW1) is the funniest of the lot- with an excellent ending.

Admiral Valdemar wrote:Basically, it's all about the Black Adder family line along with Baldrick and several others who emulate various people in history from the middle ages to the Renaissance to World War I.

There are also loads of specials like an Xmas special with Black Adder as Scrooge, but these are not all on VHS or DVD except the 1999 special "Black Adder: Back and Forth" made by Sky for the Millenium Dome which was a 45 minute special when Baldrick makes a time machine (somehow!).

There is a DVD with the Comic Relief BlackAdder sketch (dealing with Cromwell), and the Back and Forth special. Plus there's a seperate one for the Xmas Special 'Black Adders christmas Carol'. Here's the Result of the Amazon Uk search on BlackAdder.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/sea ... 81-9531613

Vympel wrote:I have all four on DVD. They rule.

Can't believe you didn't know this stuff about BLACK ADDER, Poe!!!!!

Note: the first season is undoubtedly the worst of the lot. Black Adder is much better as the smart one.

Oh, and Black Adder Goes Forth (Black Adder in WW1) is the funniest of the lot- with an excellent ending.

I had Black Adder Goes Forth on video which I had taped off the original broadcast. I have never seen such a more touching and true ending to any comedy before, it truly was a perfect end to a series which seemed to highlight some fatal flaws we make in history.

BlackAdder, I hardly knew yee..
That was the idea

I have a plan so cunning you can stick a tail on it and call it a weasel!

Mr Bean wrote:BlackAdder, I hardly knew yee..
That was the idea

I have a plan so cunning you can stick a tail on it and call it a weasel!

Baldrick:
I thought if I owned the bullet with my name on it, I'd never get hit by it...

===

Blackadder:
Your brain, for example, is so minute, Baldrick, that if a hungry cannibal cracked your head open, there wouldn't be enough inside to cover a small water biscuit.

===

Blackadder:
What's on the menu?

Baldrick:
Rat: sautee or fricasee.

Blackadder:
Oh, the agony of choice. Sauteed involves...?

Baldrick:
Well, first you take a freshly shaven rat and marinate it in a mud puddle for a while.

Blackadder:
Mmm, for how long?

Baldrick:
Til it's drowned.

===

Melchett:
Row, row, row your punt gently down the stream,

George:
Belts off, trousers down, life is such a scream. UNNHH!!

Blackadder:
Fabulous. University education: you can't beat it.

===

George:
I'm as bored as a pacifist pistol.

===

Blackadder:
Now, Baldrick, ask me some simple questions.

Baldrick:
Right. Wot is your name?

Blackadder:
Wooble.

Baldrick:
Wot is two plus two?

Blackadder:
Oh, wooble wooble.

Blackadder:
Where do you live?

Blackadder:
London.

Baldrick:
Eh?

Blackadder:
A small village on Mars, just outside the capital city...Wooble.

===

Blackadder:
We've been sitting here since Christmas 1914, during which millions of men have died, & we've advanced no further than an asthmatic ant with some heavy shopping.

===

George:
I say, Blackadder, what a ghastly squit! He's not going to win, is he?

Edmund:
No, sir, because firstly, we shall fight this campaign on issues, not personalities. Secondly, we will be the only fresh thing on the menu. And thirdly, of course, we'll cheat.

===

Edmund:
Well, sir, one name does leap to mind.

George:
Does it?

Edmund:
Yes, sir."

George:
You couldn't make it leap any higher, could you?

===

Edmund:
What is your name, boy ?

Boy:
Kate.

Edmund:
Kate, that's an unusual name for a boy.

Boy:
It's short for ... Bob.

===

Baldrick:
But I've been in your service since I was two & a half!

Edmund:
Well, that must be why I'm so utterly sick of the sight of you!

===

Edmund:
For as we all know, God made man in his own image. It'd be a sad lookout for Christians throughout the globe if God looked anything like you, Baldrick.

===

Flash (to Baldrick):
Thanks, bridesmaid! Like the beard! Gives me something to hang on to!

===

Hag:
Two things, my lord, must thee know of the Wisewoman. First, she is

... a woman, and second, she is ...

Edmund:
Wise?

Hag:
Oh! You know her then?

Edmund:
No, just a wild stab in the dark, which, is incidentally what you'll be getting if you don't start being a bit more helpful. Do you know where she lives?

===

Edmund:
Ah ha. Lets see if I've got this straight. If I admit that I'm in love with... [guard shakes his head.] No?? [guard does a half somersault] Oh, If I say that I'm head over heels in love with Satan and all his little wizards, you will remove my testicles with a blunt instrument resembling some kind of gardening tool, but we can't quite make that out, and roast them over a large fire. Whereas, if I don't admit that I'm head over heels in love with Satan and all his little wizards, you will hold me upside down in a vat of warm marmalade.. [pause..sees guard isn't finished...realisation] AND remove my testicles with a blunt instrument resembling some kind of gardening tool. Well in that case, I love Satan.... [guard produces a scythe] Oh, it's a scythe....

"He's the most overrated person since Judas Iscariot won the AD 31 Disciple of the Year competition!"

and who can forget General Haig's latest gargantuan effort to move his drinks cabinet 6 inches closer to Berlin ? (or was that Melchitt?)

Your services might be as useful as a barber’s shop on the steps of a guillotine.

===

Baldrick, in the Amazonian rain forests there are tribes of Indians as yet untouched by civilisation who have developed more convincing Charlie Chaplin impressions than yours.

===

I've a horrid suspicion that Baldrick's plan will be the stupidest thing we've heard since Lord Nelson's famous signal at the Battle of the Nile: 'England knows Lady Hamilton's a virgin, poke my eye out and cut off my arm if I'm wrong.'

===

I'd rather spend an evening on top of a stepladder in No Man's Land smoking endless cigarettes through a luminous balaclava.

===

For 'magnificent men' read 'biggest showoffs since Lady Godiva entered the royal enclosure at Ascot claiming she had literally nothing to wear.'

===

We hate the French! We fight wars against them! Did all those men die in vain on the field of Agincourt? Was the man who burnt Joan of Arc simply wasting good matches?

===

I lost closer friends than 'darling Georgie' the last time I was deloused.

===

You were the least convincing female impressionist since Tarzan went through Jane's handbag and ate her lipstick.

===

You ride a horse rather less well than another horse would.

===

You are about as much use to me with a hole in your head, an affliction with which you must be familiar, never having had a brain.

===

He's got a brain the size of a weasel's wedding tackle.

===

Most of the infantry think you're a prat. Ask them who they'd prefer to meet - Squadron Commander Flashheart or the man who cleans the public toilets in Aberdeen and they'd go for Wee Jock Poo-Pong McPlop every time.

===

A load of stupid actors strutting around shouting, with their chests thrust out so far you'd think their nipples were attached to a pair of charging elephants.

===

A war hasn't been fought this badly since Olaf the Hairy, High Chief of all the vikings, accidentally ordered 80,000 battle helmets with the horns on the inside.

Vympel wrote:"He's the most overrated person since Judas Iscariot won the AD 31 Disciple of the Year competition!"

and who can forget General Haig's latest gargantuan effort to move his drinks cabinet 6 inches closer to Berlin ? (or was that Melchitt?)

Field Marshall Haig, the biggest twat to ever grace the British army, thankfully his memorial was torn down.

Admiral Valdemar wrote:
Field Marshall Haig, the biggest twat to ever grace the British army, thankfully his memorial was torn down.

Really? He had a memorial and they tore it down? When was it torn down?

Vympel wrote:

Admiral Valdemar wrote:
Field Marshall Haig, the biggest twat to ever grace the British army, thankfully his memorial was torn down.

Really? He had a memorial and they tore it down? When was it torn down?

Years ago, forget when, he was unworthy of one anyway, how many statues of Hitler or Stalin do you see around?

Admiral Valdemar wrote: Field Marshall Haig, the biggest twat to ever grace the British army, thankfully his memorial was torn down.

But the Somme was a triumph! How can people be so ungracious? (now THAT's sarcasm)

Frank Hipper wrote:

Admiral Valdemar wrote: Field Marshall Haig, the biggest twat to ever grace the British army, thankfully his memorial was torn down.

But the Somme was a triumph! How can people be so ungracious? (now THAT's sarcasm)

It is indeed, my great grandfather fought in that "battle" too and luckily wasn't shot by a German or his CO.

Admiral Valdemar wrote:Field Marshall Haig, the biggest twat to ever grace the British army, thankfully his memorial was torn down.

Can you believe he thought machine guns were useless, even AFTER the Somme?

Admiral Valdemar wrote:

Frank Hipper wrote:

Admiral Valdemar wrote: Field Marshall Haig, the biggest twat to ever grace the British army, thankfully his memorial was torn down.

But the Somme was a triumph! How can people be so ungracious? (now THAT's sarcasm)

It is indeed, my great grandfather fought in that "battle" too and luckily wasn't shot by a German or his CO.

Hearing that his memorial was torn down made my day. And good for great-grand-dad, one of the few.