Blackadder
Blackadder is a series of four period British sitcoms, plus several one-off instalments, which originally aired on BBC1 from 1983 to 1989. All television episodes starred Rowan Atkinson as the antihero Edmund Blackadder and Tony Robinson as Blackadder's dogsbody, Baldrick. Each series was set in a different historical period, with the two protagonists accompanied by different characters, though several reappear in one series or another, e.g., Melchett (Stephen Fry), Lord Percy Percy / Captain Darling (Tim McInnerny) and George (Hugh Laurie).
| Blackadder | |
|---|---|
Left to right: Tim McInnerny, Rowan Atkinson, Stephen Fry, Tony Robinson and Hugh Laurie in Blackadder Goes Forth | |
| Genre | Period sitcom |
| Created by | Richard Curtis Rowan Atkinson |
| Written by | Richard Curtis Rowan Atkinson (series 1) Ben Elton (series 2–4) |
| Directed by | Geoff Posner (pilot) Martin Shardlow (series 1) Mandie Fletcher (series 2 and 3) Richard Boden (series 4) |
| Starring | Rowan Atkinson Tony Robinson Hugh Laurie Tim McInnerny Miranda Richardson Stephen Fry |
| Theme music composer | Howard Goodall |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 24 (plus 4 specials) (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer | John Lloyd |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 30 minutes approx |
| Production company | BBC |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC1 |
| Release | 15 June 1983 – 2 November 1989 |
The first series, The Black Adder, was written by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson, while subsequent series were written by Curtis and Ben Elton. The shows were produced by John Lloyd. In 2000, the fourth series, Blackadder Goes Forth, ranked at 16 in the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes, a list created by the British Film Institute. In a 2001 poll by Channel 4, Edmund Blackadder was ranked third on their list of the 100 Greatest TV Characters. In the 2004 TV poll to find Britain's Best Sitcom, Blackadder was voted the second-best British sitcom of all time, topped by Only Fools and Horses. It was also ranked as the 9th-best TV show of all time by Empire magazine. Rowan Atkinson said Blackadder is "the thing he found the least stressful" to do.