Blackadder

One year until end of analogue TV

Last weekend marked the one year mark until the end of analogue TV in New Zealand. On September 30 next year, the Hawke’s Bay and West Coast regions will begin the first phase of switchover which will be completed with the upper North Island in December.

PM calls for Coro to stay

Prime Minister John Key has joined fans of Coronation Street in calling for the soap to stay in its 7.30pm timeslot on TV One.

Atkinson suggest Blackadder return

Rowan Atkinson has suggested that a fifth season of Blackadder could still be produced but without its original cast. The actor believes that although his former castmates are too old to return, he feels the basic format could live on.

8:05pm Friday, August 27 on Prime

Comedy

In the trenches on the front, Edmund vows that he’s damned if he’s doomed. When General Haig unveils his new strategy to move his drinks cabinet nearer to Berlin, Blackadder volunteers to be Official War Artist.

8:35pm Friday, April 16 on Prime

Comedy Chains Tonight on Blackadder Edmund and Melchett are kidnapped by a German who plans to overthrow England’s Queen. In a fitting end to series two, the entire court is gruesomely, and some would argue deservedly, murdered.

8:35pm Thursday, April 8 on Prime

Comedy

Tonight on Blackadder, Edmund has his Aunt and Uncle Whiteadder over for dinner. An awfully embarrassing set of circumstances – involving a turnip, an ostrich feather and his rather large aunt – brings trouble to the Blackadder home. Get ready for loads of laughs Blackadder fans!

8:25pm Friday, April 2 on Prime

Comedy

Tonight on Blackadder the Bishop of Bath & Wells arrives to collect on a debt that Edmund owes. The clergy of Elizabethan England could be ruthless in their methods of chastising their flock, which explains the red hot poker the Bishop is brandishing.

8:30pm Friday, March 26 on Prime

Comedy

Tonight Sir Walter Raleigh returns from his epic voyage to the new world, with tales of adventure and discovery that greatly impress the Queen. Everyone in the kingdom is celebrating. Everyone, that is, except Blackadder and Mrs Miggins from the pie shop (who is excused because she’s paralysed from the nose downwards). Goaded on by Sir Walter, and with the Queen promising to marry him if he succeeds, Blackadder vows to sail around the Cape of Good Hope, a journey so dangerous that it spells almost certain death. Things start badly when it becomes clear that Redbeard Rum, their captain, is so barking mad that he can’t even find France. After two years, and much consumption of Baldrick’s urine, they return home in triumph only to discover that the Queen has completely gone off sailors.

8:30pm Friday, March 19 on Prime

Comedy

Things get a bit hot for Edmund when he’s appointed Head Executioner and accidentally executes Sir Francis Drake! This causes Edmund a slight problem when Drake’s wife wants to see him.

8:30pm Friday, March 12 on Prime

Comedy

Tonight, Blackadder is attempting to teach Baldrick the basic concepts of addition when he is appointed Lord High Executioner and Minister for Religious Genocide (owing to the fact the previous incumbent signed his name on the wrong dotted line). To give himself a long weekend, he moves up the date of execution for Lord Farrow (from Wednesday to Monday), but this causes a slight problem for Edmund when the Queen allows Farrow’s wife to visit her husband in prison before his originally scheduled execution. Blackadder pretends to be Farrow, disguising himself with a bag over his head but when the Queen then decides to pardon Farrow, saying ‘Oh, yes, all right, then. Let him off. He probably is innocent anyway’, it looks bleak for Blackadder.

8:30pm Friday, March 5 on Prime

Comedy

Join Prime for this classic British comedy, starring Rowan Atkinson as Blackadder II. The second chapter of the historical sitcom transports us to Elizabethan England and to a particularly cunning member of the Queen’s court, a certain Edmund, bastard great-great-grandson of the Blackadder of the first series.

But while the two may be related, this Blackadder turns out to be an altogether different beast, making up for what he lacks in royal lineage and incompetence with a biting wit, greed and cowardly cunning. The last of these comes in particularly useful in trying to appease the wildly swinging moods of the Queen, who could be on the point of either marrying or beheading him.

At court, Blackadder must counter Lord Melchett (Stephen Fry), the Lord Chamberlain and a rival for the Queen’s affections who often sees through Edmund’s scheming. Meanwhile, in his household Blackadder has to cope with the unwanted adoration of the cowardly Lord Percy and with being waited on by the worst servant in London, namely another member of the Baldrick family who manages to be even filthier and more idiotic than his ancestor.

In this first episode, the congenital defects of the Blackadder family resurface when Edmund employs a young man called “Bob” (who is actually a woman in disguise) whom he finds himself attracted to, much to his dismay. Once he discovers that “Bob” is actually Kate, he plans to marry her, only to have her elope with his best man, Lord Flashheart (guest star Rik Mayall).

Any fool can make history.

Tuesday 26 December, 10.40pm TV One

Many great dynasties, strong and brave, have played a part in shaping Britain’s heritage. The Blackadders are not one of them. From cowards to cads and back again, the Blackadders have managed to seriously lower the tone of every era through which they have wended their serpentine way.

The first recorded Blackadder, cursed from youth by a deformed haircut, creeps around medieval England in a pair of unattractive tights. His career starts with the murder of his own charming Uncle Richard III, and heads downwards from there – never helped by his companions: pea-brained Percy and pea-sized Baldrick.