Blackadder Back and Forth
Created | Updated Oct 20, 2010
When I first heard they were making a Blackadder film to be shown at the Millennium Dome in Greenwich, I threw my cap in the air, kissed the dog and proceeded to do a merry jig down the street. That is until I realised my celebrations may have been premature, because being a poor person as I am, if I waited until this new cinematic treat was premiered on poor people’s telly, I could be waiting till the next millennium. And that made me sad. But then came people bearing satellite dishes and video recorders and I praised the Sky!<BR/>
It’s New Year’s Eve 1999 and Blackadder is holding a dinner party. As part of an elaborate prank Baldrick has built an authentic looking time machine from the original plans of Leonardo da Vinci himself. The duo’s surprise when they discover the machine actually works is nothing compared to their surprise when they realise they don’t know how to return to the present. So out heroic pair are forced to roam time, meeting major figures from British history, such as William Shakespeare and Robin Hood, and causing merry chaos as they go. <BR/>
This 40-minute film made for the Dome is Blackadder with a purpose. And that purpose is to showcase British history. To illustrate the events that made this country great. Well at least that’s what the Millennium Commission hoped what they would get. Instead they got the film, surprisingly, with all the original cynical humour of Blackadder intact. They indiscriminately take the kidney by-product out of British history, while also being gloriously non-“pc” about the French, which is always a bonus in my book. <BR/>
A few concessions were made for the Dome audience such as toning down the language like Blackadder being forced to use a restrained “codswallop”. And occasionally I felt the film slipped into self parody, especially with the over-use of simile, for example; <I>“Is it as cunning as a fox what was made professor of cunning at Oxford University but has now moved on to better things and currently heads the commission of cunning at the UN?” </I><BR/>
However, the original cast including Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Tim McInnerny, Miranda Richardson, Rik Mayall, and Tony Robinson easily managed to pull it off, and were all on top form. But Rowan Atkinson made the film; his reaction when he first opens the door of the time machine is classic, and who thought such confusion could be caused by a raspberry lollipop! <BR/>
The problem when they make these sort of spin-off films is that they never live up the original series. Luckily for us there’s no such problem here, why it’s Blackadder like your mother used to make.
<p>
It’s New Year’s Eve 1999 and Blackadder is holding a dinner party. As part of an elaborate prank Baldrick has built an authentic looking time machine from the original plans of Leonardo da Vinci himself. The duo’s surprise when they discover the machine actually works is nothing compared to their surprise when they realise they don’t know how to return to the present. So out heroic pair are forced to roam time, meeting major figures from British history, such as William Shakespeare and Robin Hood, and causing merry chaos as they go. <BR/>
This 40-minute film made for the Dome is Blackadder with a purpose. And that purpose is to showcase British history. To illustrate the events that made this country great. Well at least that’s what the Millennium Commission hoped what they would get. Instead they got the film, surprisingly, with all the original cynical humour of Blackadder intact. They indiscriminately take the kidney by-product out of British history, while also being gloriously non-“pc” about the French, which is always a bonus in my book. <BR/>
A few concessions were made for the Dome audience such as toning down the language like Blackadder being forced to use a restrained “codswallop”. And occasionally I felt the film slipped into self parody, especially with the over-use of simile, for example; <I>“Is it as cunning as a fox what was made professor of cunning at Oxford University but has now moved on to better things and currently heads the commission of cunning at the UN?” </I><BR/>
However, the original cast including Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Tim McInnerny, Miranda Richardson, Rik Mayall, and Tony Robinson easily managed to pull it off, and were all on top form. But Rowan Atkinson made the film; his reaction when he first opens the door of the time machine is classic, and who thought such confusion could be caused by a raspberry lollipop! <BR/>
The problem when they make these sort of spin-off films is that they never live up the original series. Luckily for us there’s no such problem here, why it’s Blackadder like your mother used to make.
<p>
