Directed by Martin Shardlow, Mandie Fletcher, Richard BodenAvailability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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Average customer review:
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-Mr 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 favour 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 -- like 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
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #32 in DVD
- Released on: 2005-10-03
- Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
- Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
- Formats: Box set, PAL, Special Edition
- Original language: English
- Number of discs: 6
Customer Reviews
I have a cuning plan!!!
This box set is excellent and well worth the money to have all of the series in one box. Each series being on individual discs.
The picture quality is not as bad as some people make out. you have to remember that Blackadder has not been digitally remastered, therefore, expect the quality to be the same as when you watched them all those years ago. I find the quality to be great and does not spoil viewing.
I great buy for anyone!
More cunning than a sack full of weasels
Delighted to get this for Christmas - and brilliant to have all episodes, if only to see how Atkinson's character becomes more and more sophisticated through the generations.
Pure pleasure. From the strangely shaped turnips through to Baldrick's special capuccino.
Funny what ever the year!
THis is the height of british humour, an all star cast of comicgenius with comedic heritage thrown in bucket loads!!
The complete collection is fantastic, all of the series ann of the plans, the failures and baldricks cunning plans. To viewers young and old blackadder is funny! IT bounces through history like a bunny on nitrous oxide and what ever the scenario blackadders failure is funny!
I was always tought not to laugh at someone failing but black adders like telling a starving childnot to eat cake! physically impossible!
A great collection of typically british laughter great any time of the year!and an even better christmas present!
DVD Releases UK » Blackadder - The Complete Collection
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