Blackadder: The Whole Damn Dynasty, 1485-1917

The first series was set in the pre-Tudor royal family, projecting that Richard III won at Bosworth Field, and Richard IV succeeded him, until after many adventures, the entire royal family was done in, and Henry Tudor reworte history thereafter. The first series starred Brian Blessed and Elspet Gray as the King and Queen, and Robert East as their eldest son, the Prince of Wales. Rowan Atkinson played the second son, who with companions Percy and Baldrick (Tim McInnerny and Tony Robinson) create most of the comic scenes. BlackAdder variously becomes the Archbishop of Canterbury, the betrothed of the Spanish Infanta, a witch on trial, and finally, however briefly, King of England.

The second series sees Percy and Baldrick following a descendent of Blackadder in Elizabethan times; as befits the period, the characters are more vibrant and saucy, particularly Blackadder, who still seeks his fortune as one of the Queen's suitors. Here he variously becomes the royal executioner, a sea-faring discoverer, a bankrupt noble, and finally a traitor to the crown, albeit not without a sense of humour. Miranda Richardson puts in a spectacular performance as Queen Elizabeth, with Stephen Fry and Patsy Byrne in attendance. Stephen Fry will recur throughout the series.

In the third series, Blackadder is still close to the crown, as the butler of the Prince Regent, a despised position to a despised person. Baldrick is still around, and the Prince is played by Hugh Laurie, who will recur in the final series. Done almost as a period comedy, the very titles and situations pay hommage to the day of the Scarlet Pimpernel, Dr. Johnson's dictionary, and the conflict with France. Through an interesting set of circumstances, butler and prince trade places, and the Blackadder finally becomes his intended goal, albeit in the name of someone else.

In the fourth and final series, Blackadder has fallen from a great height, and is an officer in the trenches of World War I. Baldrick is still there, and Percy and the Prince have transformed into fellow field officers, with Stephen Fry playing a bellicose general here as he did Wellington in the third series. The main device of this series is the effort by Blackadder to escape the trenches, by variously becoming an artist, a theatre producer, a chef, but to no avail finally, producing a sombre end to the dynasty.

The book is a fabulous companion piece to the series, as the BBC is known to do with television series of success. The six episodes of each of the four seasons is laid out in script-narrative form, with a generous collection of side offerings, such as the Blackadder family tree, the menu of Mrs. Miggins' pie shoppe, and other pieces of interest related to but not found in the actual series. The cast is included at the beginning of each series section. The book concludes with a partial collection of some of Blackadder's best insults.

This book was printed in aid of Comic Relief, who give a brief outline of their history of funding good causes in the last few pages.

This is a must-have for any Blackadder fan. Regretably, it does not contain the addition special features (such as the Victorian Christmas of Blackadder), but for any devotee of the series, this is a requirement.


A must-have for any fan of the Black Adder!   December 20, 2003
 8 out of 12 found this review helpful

1983 saw the airing of a hilariously funny new British television show, Blackadder. This show had four separate seasons that chronicled the lives of four members of the Blackadder family: Edmund Blackadder in 1484, son of Richard, Duke of York; Edmund Blackadder, favorite of Queen Elizabeth I; Edmund Blackadder, butler to Prince George, son of King George III; and, finally, Edmund Blackadder, Army captain during World War I. This book is a companion to that wonderful series, filling in the holes left in English history, giving all sort of useful information drawn from the Blackadder family archives, and the full scripts of each of the shows!

This is a great book, and a must-have for any fan of the Black Adder. The scripts are great to have, and the other information demonstrates the same great humor as the show. Having been created in 1998, the book does not contain any information on the Y2K special, Blackadder Back & Forth, which makes sense. What doesn't make sense is that it completely ignores the 1988 Christmas Special! But, that said, this is a nice book, one that I highly recommend to every Blackadder fan!


Damn Funny, Too   August 15, 2002
 9 out of 14 found this review helpful

I stumbled upon the Black Adder comedy series one night in the 1980s while channel surfing. Something was weird, I thought--there's this sniveling coward, and this even more sniveling sycophant, and then the dogsbody who has dung all over him. Looks interesting. And as I watched, I found it extremely funny, as well. It required a knowledge of history (or Shakespeare, as you see fit), yet wasn't afraid to do the occasional fart joke. Puerile, yet intelligent. That described me at the time as well.

The successive series (Blackadder II, Blackadder the Third, and Blackadder Goes Forth) shifted over into the more intelligent realm (with the third series being the most so), although the running jokes about Baldrick (the dogsbody) being little better than the dung he came from remained. Blackadder II, set in the court of the virgin queen, starred Miranda Richardson, who was perfect in her cruelty towards the hapless Blackadder. The third series had Hugh Laurie as the Prince Regent, a befuddled German idiot who is being taken advantage of by Blackadder, the butler (think of a dark Wooster/Jeeves match, where the Jeeves character retains his aplomb but becomes extra greedy). I never got to see the fourth series on television, so my experience with it is through this book alone.

And what a great book it is. Published to benefit Comic Relief, the organization trying to aid the poor and destitute in England and Africa, it contains the scripts to each episode of the four series with faux historical documents and a running summary of the line of Blackadder. For an American, the scripts are almost a necessity to catch some of the more obscure language used in the series--especially the curses. The endpapers have color pictures of the main characters in each series, and there are some black and white stills with humorous captions included within the pages.

To say that Black Adder is my favorite TV show is true. I liked the 1970s American sitcom, SOAP, as well, but from its hilarious beginnings, it tapered off into pure silliness (as most American shows tend to do). The nice thing about the Blackadder series is the way that the British limit themselves to sets of shows, rather than endlessly milking the cash cow. Yes, I would like to see a fifth Black Adder (I've seen the Christmas Carol, which was wonderful), but only if it can be of the same quality as these. If not, let's not ruin a good thing, shall we?