The Black Adder 1

• Cat.no: BBCDVD 1001
• Cert: 15
• Running time: 190 minutes
• Year: 1983
• Pressing: 1999
• Region(s): 2, 4 (UK PAL)
• Chapters: 38 plus extras
• Sound: Mono
• Languages: English
• Subtitles: 9 languages available
• Fullscreen: 4:3
• 16:9-enhanced: No
• Macrovision: No
• Disc Format: DVD 9
• Price: £19.99
• Extras : Scene index, Booklet
  

  ---

  Director:

  Martin Shardlow

  (TV: Only Fools and Horses)

Producer:

Screenplay:

Music:

Cast:

Edmund, The Black Adder: Rowan Atkinson (Bean, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Hot Shots! Part Deux, The Witches, TV: Blackadder 1-4, Doctor Who: The Curse of Fatal Death, Mr. Bean, Not The Nine O’Clock News, The Thin Blue Line)
Baldrick: Tony Robinson (Never Ending Story 3, TV: Black Adder 1-4, My Wonderful Life, Time Team)
King Richard IV: Brian Blessed (Flash Gordon, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, TV: The Avengers, I Claudius, Z Cars)
Percy: Tim McInnerry (Notting Hill, TV: Blackadder 1-4)
The Queen: Elspet Mary
Prince Harry: Robert East

The Black Adderis the first of four sitcoms featuring Rowan Atkinson as theeponymous put-upon anti-hero who attains to achieve greatness and nobilitybut never quite manages it. For the first series Rowan Atkinson(Not the Nine O’Clock News) and Richard Curtis, creator of twoof Britain’s biggest home-grown hits, Four Weddings and a Funeral andNotting Hill), bring about a comedy packed full of dry humour in whichEdmund is the butt of almost every single joke. After the first series, Rowanwas replaced by Ben Elton (The Young Ones, Filthy Rich and Catflap,Stark and Popcorn)

The first episode, The Foretelling, Edmund inadvertantly helps hisfather become King of England by accidentally bumping of the current leader,King Richard III (the late, great Peter Cook), who then comes back tohaunt him and point out the error of his ways. Born to be King, seesEdmund discovering that with his father away on a possibly-fatal mission anda mysterious orange-faced stranger pointing out that his brother was not bornof his father’s loins, he could indeed become King. However, he first has toput on a show to celebrate St. Leonard’s Day including the eunuch’s, the beardedlady – neither of which will be making an appearance – and the Jumping Jews ofJerusalem, who sadly turn up.

In The Archbishop, Edmund is under the impression that his brother, Prince Harry,is to become the new Archbishop of Canterbury and since no-one has lasted in the job forlonger than a few months before being mysteriously killed off, it means that Edmund canbecome the next King. However, it is Edmund who attains this appointment and has to find away of getting out of it. The Queen of Spain’s Beard spells doom forEdmund as he is forced into an arranged marriage with the most hideous ofwomen, Princess Maria, the Spanish Infanta (Miriam Margolyes, mostrecently seen giving Arnie a kicking in End of Days) and he tries amyriad of ways to escape getting hitched.

For Witchsmeller Pursuivant, Frank Finlay stars as the Witchsmeller andwith the King suffering with the Black Death, Edmund is unwittingly tried and convictedof being a witch. Can he be saved from being burnt at the stake before it’s too late?Finally, in The Black Seal, Edmund makes one last bid for the throne by going outto find the Seven Most Evil Men in the land in an episode that features appearances fromRik Mayall as Mad Gerald and Patrick Allen, also the narrator of this seriesand those old Barratt Houses adverts, as The Hawk.

Running from June 15th 1983, through all four series, The Black Adder,Black Adder II, Black Adder The Third and Black Adder Goes Forth,the latter of which ended on November 2nd 1989, to date 26 episodes have beenfilmed including those series plus two specials: The Cavalier Years andBlack Adder’s Christmas Carol, not to mention a Doctor Who spoof forthe 1999 Comic Relief telethon and the forthcoming one-off for the GreenwichWhite Elephant, er..I mean, The Millennium Dome, entitled Black Adder: Backand Forth.

The picture here is by no means perfect but it’s certainly watchable. There’sno artifacts on view but it does look a little hazy from time to time. It’spresented in its original fullscreen ratio, being a TV series from the early80s and the average bitrate falls between 4.60Mb/s and 5.89Mb/s, depending onwhich episode you’re watching.

The soundtrack is labelled as stereo but is actually mono in both speakers.The dialogue is clear and has no problems, but it’s obviously not asurround-sound fest.

The other titles now available are Monty Python: Best of Vol.1, The FiveDoctors, Noddy In Toyland, Persuasion and coming in January 2000,The Planets.

Scheduled for Spring next year are :Monty Python: Best of Vol.2, Gormenghast, Walking with Dinosaurs and,of course, Black Adder II.

As for which DVDs I’d like to see from the BBC in future. They include :Red Dwarf (in their original versions, not the remastered form),The Young Ones, Filthy Rich and Catflap, Fawlty Towers and, dependingon whether I could bribe the new DG with enough cash, Eldorado…FILM : ****½ (or **** compared to the other Black Adders)PICTURE QUALITY : ***½SOUND QUALITY: **EXTRAS: *——————————-OVERALL: ***

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1999.