Brits make wonderful costume drama, and as we all know, they also make cracking comedy. Now, when it comes to combining the two, rarely has there been a better effort than Blackadder, which ran for four series between 1983 and 1989.
The consensus seems to be that the first season, which is set in the Middle Ages, is the weakest of the four, as the concept is still a bit underdeveloped and Edmund Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson) tries to wear too many hats, character-wise (so, instead of just being scheming and rude, as in the later series, he's also ambitious, cowardly, self-important, and god knows what else). However, I never found this to be a problem: a complex character can be just as funny as a flat one, or even more so. It's perhaps the Mr Bean-like antics he could have done without.
What I love about the first series is the mixing of Shakespearean dialogue with unpredictably silly scenes. Most of the brilliancy is down to the casting. Peter Cook is wonderful as the unjustly murdered Richard III (A horse! A hooor-se... my kindom for a hoooor-se.... Ah! Horsie!), and Miriam Margolyes makes a tremendous appearance as the overamorous Spanish infanta. Yet the character who (at least for me) makes the entire series is the wonderfully energetic Richard IV, played with great gusto by Brian Blessed and his beard ("Blood! Death! War! Rumpy-Pumpy!") . Here, too, we get Baldrick (later merely Blackadder's downtrodden sidekick) showing his true potential as a skilfull political schemer. (What I've never cared for is the casual violence which in the later series features in most of the Blackadder-Baldrick interaction.)
I haven't yet seen all the episodes of the third and fourth series, but from what I've seen, Blackadder Goes Forth is the superior, as it so poignantly combines the tragedy and downright silliness of war. Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie are both in their element - Fry as a bumbling general (BAAA!) , and Laurie as a Bertie Wooster-type clueless aristocrat.
However, my favourite series is the second, set in Elizabethan England, and brimming with excellent writing, great acting and absurd characters. Fistly, there's Blackadder's cross-dressing fiancé Bob, who is later stolen by none other than Rik Mayall (Woof!); there's Bernard the Nursie, who still considers Queen Elizabeth to be a little girl - and finally there's Queenie herself, who may as well be a little girl in court dress, sceptre and the power to cut off peoples' heads. My favourite scene in the whole of Blackadder (which used to be on youtube, but like most BA clips, was quickly taken down) features Queenie laying down the law after a night of drunken revelry:
"I may have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a concrete elephant. First I'm going to have a little drinkie - and then I'm going to execute the whole bally lot of you!"
As I said, unlike most Monty Python material (which is virtually in the public domain nowadays), Blackadder clips don't remain on youtube for long. Luckily, a special episode of the series survives in its entirety - and appropriately enough, it's a sort of reversal of Dickens's Christmas Carol. Enjoy!
Merry messy Xmas to you all!
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