Blackadder: Back & Forth (1999)

I saw this not long after it debuted and I remember feeling a bit disappointed. However, as I have just bought the Blackadder mega-set, I thought I'd give it a try once again. Well, now after having see this hilarious special, I must assume back when I first saw it, I was out of my mind, as it was absolutely wonderful from start to finish! The show begins in the present. It's New Year's Eve and Edmund is having a few friends over to celebrate--and to rob them blind. His plan is to construct a fake time machine and use it to dupe his friends out of money that they will bet him. However, surprisingly, Baldrick's reconstruction of a supposed DaVinci machine actually works and the two of them are, for some time, stuck in time--unable to find their way back. In the process, unfortunately, they do some significant things to alter time and when they return, the British are all subjects of France--as, thanks to Edmund, the French won at Waterloo and subsequently invaded Britain! There's a lot more to it than this--with probably the best ending of any Blackadder series. It's then up to them to undo undo the damage they caused. I won't say more--it would spoil the fun.Exquisitely written and laugh out loud fun, this is a show not to be missed by fans of these lovely shows.

When the Millennium was coming close they built a special building in London called the Millennium Dome, they made this special film to be played in the cinema of the Dome. Richard Curtis and Ben Elton's wonderful comedy sitcom characters have returned after ten years to do a special final edition to the saga (the final member of the Blackadder family, to date). Rowan Atkinson as Lord Edmund Blackadder and his friends George (Hugh Laurie), Melchett (Stephen Fry), Darling (Tim McInnerny) and Lady Elizabeth (Miranda Richardson) sit down to dinner to celebrate the New Year, new Century and Millennium. The very good Baldrick (Tony Robinson) is also there providing a disgusting dinner. Blackadder then tells his chums he has made a time machine, he shows them and he bets them £10,000 each that he can time travel and bring back historical items. They all except the bet and ask for separate items. It's after Baldrick and Blackadder get into the machine and pull a lever that they do actually time travel, but it was meant to be a prank! Also starring Rik Mayall as Robin Hood (Woof!), Colin Firth as William Shakespeare, Kate Moss as Maid Marian and Patsy Byrne as Nursie. It was nominated the BAFTA Situation Comedy Award. Edmund Blackadder was number 3 on The 100 Greatest TV Characters, and he was number 3 on The World's Greatest Comedy Characters. Very good!

First, the plot. It seemed typical and appropriate that when instructed to construct a phony time machine, Baldrick actually constructs a working one. Nice.I was not, however, too keen on the notion that there has "always been a Blackadder and Baldrick." That was one of the best gags was the first Edmund struggling to come up with a proper name for his new persona as the Duke of Edinburough.Still, it might have been neat to see present-day Edmund confront one of his ancestors. How would they have interacted? Perhaps this is precisely what happened when Edmund went back a third time to "set things straight."Agreed, though, that the characters simply didn't seem themselves. I can imagine it is difficult trying to resurrect a character one hasn't played in at least a decade, but at the same time, there might have been potential to play, say, Queen Bess a bit differently, perhaps play her as the older Queen, with the lead poisoning definitely setting in.I know Tim McInnerny didn't want to play Percy anymore, but I wonder what laughs they could have gotten if they had maybe drawn a connection between Percy and Darling in one of the tableaus.Blackadder, however, seems to continue his progression as a more confident character, getting to be more and more the straight-man in a lot of the gags. Baldrick, of course, continues to get dumber and dumber, frankly to the point where it is a wonder he is at all capable of functioning. This gets to be kind of problematic, as Baldrick continues to be the idiot savant who may be incapable or boiling an egg, but gets the flashes of brilliance that save the day.It might also have been nice to have seen a few other characters from the first and second series brought back in some strange modern incarnation... I would have liked to have seen Richard somehow reincarnated, or maybe if Robin Hood had let out Mad Gerrold's trademark cackle at one point...Altogether, it was great fun to see what the show could do with a greater budget, but at the same time there was an uneasy feeling the cast and crew were doing it more for old time's sake than to try to create a new installment of this comic saga.

This was my first exposure to the 'Blackadder' shows. I had only seen Rowan Atkinson as 'Mr Bean', plus his small role as the minister in 'Four Weddings'. He is totally different as Lord Blackadder, a smart, witty, well-dressed and well-behaved gentleman. However, in the end he and his trusty sidekick, 'Baldrick', do help themselves to a nice bonus. On DVD from my local public library. The whole 'Blackadder' series on DVD is next!!SPOILERS follow, for my recollection, please read no further. Blackadder and Baldrick are out to fool dinner guests by pretending to go back in a time machine that Baldrick made from following some DiVinci plans, and in the process taking them for a bit of money, 10,000 British Pounds each. Surprise! The time machine really works, but incompetent Baldrick neglects to mark the positions of the controls when they depart, so they have a problem getting back home. In the process they accidentally kill Wellington, discourage Shakespeare, and see Robin Hood die from his own men's arrows. When he finally returns, with 'evidence', no one knows who Shapespeare is, nor Robin Hood, and his friends want to pay him in Francs, because without Wellington France conquered England. Needing to put history straight, they used the time machine one more time, but when they finally returned, they also set things up for Lord Blackadder to become King of England. Moderately amusing show.