Customer Reviews

Black Adder Remastered V: The Specials

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This DVD contains three different 'Blackadder' specials, but only 'The Cavalier Years' really measures up to Blackadder at its finest.

BLACKADDER'S CHRISTMAS CAROL

'Blackadder's Christmas Carol' is a one off special, and not really up there with the four series proper. It does have an interesting premise, though. Ebenezer Blackadder undergoes a reverse transformation to that of Ebenezer Scrooge in the Dickens story 'A Christmas Carol'. Blackadder, the nicest man in England, is so nice that everyone takes advantage of him. Then he is visited by the Spirit of Christmas (Robbie Coltrane), who shows him what lies in store for his descendents if they continue to be nice. As a result, Blackadder becomes a sarcastic rogue like his ancestors. Unfortunately for him, this leads to the loss of a peerage and a large sum of money. So maybe the 'moral' is: don't be too nice, but don't be too bad either!

THE CAVALIER YEARS

This is a 15 minute sketch filmed for charity, and is comparable in quality to series two and three. Amusingly, Stephen Fry plays King Charles I as a send-up of the modern day Prince Charles.

BLACKADDER: BACK AND FORTH

As the title implies, this special (sometimes referred to as 'Blackadder 5') involves a great deal of time travel, as a contemporary Edmund tries to impress his friends by building a time machine and bringing back historical artifacts, but also causes a few unfortunate changes to history in the process. It features most of the Blackadder regulars like Tim McInnery, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry and Miranda Richardson. Rik Mayall also reprises his Lord Flashheart role, this time as Robin Hood. Funny in parts, but not as good as classic Blackadder.

I purchased this disc because I did not have "Blackadder Back and Forth". It also includes the "Cavalier Years" and "Blackadder's Christmas Carol". The images are somewhat cleaned up from the previous DVD release but not enough to repurchase it if you already own the 2001 issues. My biggest problem is with "Christmas Carol". It's edited! The line where Baldrick talks about using the Christmas Jesus dog for the Easter play is missing! It was uncut on the previous release. I have to imagine that it's also missing from the new remastered box set. Fortunately I already have it on the Blackadder III disc or I would be very upset. It may be my imagination but it also looks like the widescreen picture on 'Back and Forth' has been slightly stretched from 1.66 to 1.78. So, 5 stars for the for the shows themselves but docked to 3 stars for the questionable editing choices.