Off topic ...... Blackadder

[Phantom]

I never thought British people would be so divided over this question, but it bounced around my workplace this afternoon, causing debate and disagreement wherever it went....

There were four series of Blackadder.

Please rank all four in order (where number 1 is the series you enjoyed most).

Please make a comment to justify the order you've placed them in.

Cheers

Phantom



.

[piemeplease]

3 favorite episode featured Dr Johnson and his Dictionary (the brown papery thing tied up with string).

2 favorite episode was the one where Edmund tried to host his puritan relatives in one room while having a drinking contest in another.

4 I liked the episode where Bob the female female impersonator joined a concert party

1 I was too young to watch this when it was first on but I found when I saw it that the comedy didn't work with Baldric as the clever one and Edmund as stupid.

[Phantom]

Pie-me-please

I'm not going to reveal my personal Blackadder list just yet ... but I'll say this - it'll be interesting to see when compared to yours!

By the way - great idea to also name your favourite episode or moment from each series. I can see you're a real Blackadder fan!!

Cheers

Lord Flashphantom

[TottyMcGee]

1 - Series 4 (Blackadder Goes Forth). This stands on another level by accomplishing the difficult feat of making good comedy from one of the blackest episodes in British history without trivialising the serious side. Ben Elton's history don father reputedly rang his son on learning of the pitch for Blackadder Goes Forth begging him not to write comedy about the first world war, but Ben, himself no mean historian, knew what he was doing big time. The last episode in particular is classic television and worked marvels for the remembrance cause. Anyone who manages to remain unmoved by their final rush into the poppyfields can't be human.

2 - Series 2. Miranda Richardson's bratty Queen Elizabeth was priceless, and most of the catchphrases and running jokes to be found later on were laid in this season.

3 - Series 3. Took a creative casting step reversing the roles of master and servant between Rowan Atkinson and Hugh Laurie and featured more nifty characterisations, for example Pitt The Younger as a raging acne ridden nerd who was made Prime Minister in the middle of his GCSE revision, but isn't the classic television that 2 and 4 are.

4 - Series 1 (The Black Adder) - not often repeated and I can't remember too many details beyond the mock Shakespearian style, implying that the franchise was finding its feet at this point.


Incidentally, to make this topic a little bit on-topic, does anyone else remember Tony Robinson's comic relief pie skit on Blue Peter? Classic slapstick as he delivered a deadpan monologue as Baldrick while earnestly covering himself with shaving foam pies and shoving them down his trousers.

[Spinynorman and Frilly]

Series 4 - Wondeful acting, characters and plots with such a grim setting as a backdrop. Memorable moments being Bob, the slug and General Melchit.

Series 2 - The queen was great and the series featured an incredible over the top Tom Baker in one episode.

Series 3 - Still great just not as great as the other two.

Series 1 - Good but not great. Better combination of writers on the other three series.

[BillShipton]

I suppose I would go for the same combination as most namely 4, 2, 3 and then 1. However the first series wasn't written by Ben Elton and was in a completely different style so therefore should almost be judged as a totally different series.

Having said that, I'm glad it ended when it did. By the end of series 4 I was getting a bit fed up of the Blackadder character and some of the dialogue was getting a bit repetitive. I must be honest and say that I'm not a great Rowan Atkinson fan, and Ben Elton has done nothing worthwhile since. With spectacular irony, he has become similar to Tony Blair - full of potential for change and a new way of thinking and winding up the same as all the others a few years later.

Give me Armando Ianucci every time.

[ClownJulie]

.................

[Phantom]

Bingo!

My Blackadder list is EXACTLY the same as Charlie's and for exactly the same reasons!!! (and, interestingly, my list is the exact reverse of Piemeplease's)

Bill's right about the first series being a very different style. Many people missed it the first time around, so they think of series 2 is being the definitive Blackadder style, with Baldrick and Percy being thick stooges to clever Edmund.

I saw the first series when it was first on and loved it so much. I watched those episodes again and again - and although I quite liked series 2 and 3, they were a big disappointment compared to the first series.

As Charlie says - series 1 .... Genius!

Series 2 and 3 .... nob jokes and pantomime

And as everyone else says ... series 4 was fantastic in every respect. In fact I was almost tempted to list 4 as my favourite, but I think series 1 has added nostalgia value for me, as well as being so funny and clever.

Phantom

[Latex Liaisons]

2, 4, 1, 3

Didn`t enjoy series 3 at all. Series 2 for me was an absolute classic.

"Your husband has taken to wearing a bag"

"If I have 2 beans, then I add a further 2 beans what does that make Baldrick ?", "A very small casserole my Lord".

"When I was a small child I was savaged by a Turbot"

[Hayley]

Hi

Series 2 wins easily for me. I think it was a better period for historical jokes really - all the beheadings and that. Series 1 was a good idea but less obvious - and I like obvious! Series 3 was a pale imitation of series 2 and Series 4 was very good, very poignant but I still preferred the characters in the Elizabethan series. Besides Miranda Richardson used to live down the road from me in those days - albeit in a much posher house!

Hayley

[andy250]

Series 4 for me, the same as everybody else said, I always find the ending really powerful.


regards

Andy

[piemeplease]

everyone disagrees with me.

Can I add a qualifier that I think age plays a part in all this? I can't remember when all the series came out but I think roughly:

Series 1 was 1984, 2 was 1986, 3 was 1988 and 4 was 1990 or so.

My age for each series was 10, 12, 14 and 16. So can I use the excuse of age when each series was on please? By the time I was 16 I was starting to move on to Bottom and then The Mary Whitehouse Experience. That's for another debate altogether though.

[Phantom]

Hi Piemeplease

The great thing about a question like this is that there's no right or wrong answer. I agree with what you say about age. I think the second series definitely appealed more to a younger - sometimes teenage - audience ... with all it's words like wibble, plop and Mr. Pants etc .. and turnips shaped like cocks etc.

When I was a young teenager, the funniest thing on TV was 'The Young Ones' ... it was rude, it was weird, it was anarchy. But they have it on DVD in my school library now and when I borrowed it for a nostalgic watch I was surprised at how dated and unfunny a lot of it was. Lots of it was just the characters shouting 'you bastard' at each other.

I think a lot of modern comedies are much more clever - The Royle Family, Peep Show, Spaced, Red Dwarf (up to series 6), The Office ... these shows are genius in my opinion.

When I look back at the Blackadders, I always think that series 1 and 4 are still fantastic, and I can still enjoy watching them over and over ... and series 2 and 3 are pretty good, but not as funny as I once found them.

In fact - a few weeks ago, I borrowed series 2 and 3 on DVD from a friend in work. I found 2 ok .... but only watched three of them (Tom Baker and Rick Mayall's episodes are my faves) ... and series 3 wasn't much cop at all (although I still love the one where they have to try and re-write the entire dictionary in one night).

Phantom


Actually just remembered this from series 2...

Queenie: Thye're gone ... simply ... vanished.

Percy: (staring mysteriously into space): Like an old, oak table.

Queenie: Vanished, Lord Percy .... not varnished.




.

[Hayley]

: By the time I was 16 I was starting to move on to Bottom and then The Mary Whitehouse Experience. That's for another debate altogether though.

The History Today sketches from the latter were excellent. Had a bit of a crush on Rob Newman at the time but that was before he lodged his head up his own arse.

Hayley

[piemeplease]

Blackadder 3 did feature Mrs Miggins Pie Shop so it did have something going for it.