Customer Reviews

Blackadder: The Whole Damn Dynasty, 1485-1917

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Keywords: English, Bloody Funny!!!

'Blackadder' was a BBC English television series staring Rowan Atkinson. It ran for four series (and at least one special).

The four series ran through 450 years of English History, with the same characters reincarnating /reappearing over that time.

It is bloody funny.

Series One has Blackadder as Prince Edmund, the Black Adder under his father (who hated him) Richard IV set in the late 1400's.

Series Two has Lord Edmund Blackadder, a favorite of Elizabeth I.

Series Three has Edmund Blackadder, Butler to the Prince Regent, Prince George (the son of Mad George III).

Series Four has Captain Edmund Blackadder in the trenches of World War One France in 1917.

Always with his dogsbody Baldrick and always descending the social ladder, Blackadder is a revisit on history that is well worth a visit.

The scripts, the primary content of this book, are extremely well written. The authors are Atkinson himself, Ben Elton and Richard Curtis. Other fillers in the book are original and funny.

If you've seen the programs, you will buy the book anyway. If you don't know Blackadder, get the videos from Amazon.com and then buy the book. It is excellent.

To the Creators of Blackadder, thank you and isn't it time for another series?

Well maybe not, but it is over 450 pages of Blackadder! "This book, sir, contains every word in our beloved language." Just kidding, I just had to say that. What this book does contain is the complete scripts for all 24 episodes of the entire Blackadder series written by Richard Curtis & Ben Elton, who are both "as clever as a stick in a bucket of pig swill." and starring the "quite brilliant" comedic talents of Rowan Atkinson, Tony Robinson, Hugh Laurie, and Stephen Fry, among others. If you have not seen Blackadder, you have no idea what you're missing. However, if you have seen it and don't like it, then I hope you get an extremely itchy rash on "the soft dangly collection of objects in your trousers." There are plenty of other things besides the scripts but I'll leave it as a surprise (or you can just read one of the other reviews). Keep in mind that these are the original scripts, not word for word what you hear on the show. For the most part it is exactly the same, but every once and a while there are different words used in the book. Don't worry, it doesent take away from any humor and the only person that will notice it will be someone, like myself, who has watched Blackadder over and over. Seriously, I put Blackadder III in my DVD player before I go to sleep and sometimes the last thing I hear is "Once upon a time there was a lovely sausage called Baldrick and it lived happily ever after." Anyway the book is essential for the Blackadder fan who can't get enough of the hilarious and original writing. Here are some lines you can read continuously for the rest of your life once you buy this book:

"Population: three rather mangy cows, a dachshund named Colin, and a small hen, in its late forties."

"I took over for the original electorate after he very sadly accidentally brutally cut his head off while combing his hair."

"I am delighted to have been instrumental in keeping your bosom free of arses."

"...eternity in the company of Beelzebub and all his hellish instruments of death will be a picnic compared to five minutes with me and this pencil..."

By the way, all royalties from the sale of this book go to Comic Relief UK. So you're actually doing two good things: Donating to a worthwhile charity and owning a book "so cunning, you could stick a tail on it and call it a weasel."

This book contains the complete set of scripts for the Black Adder TV episodes, made by the BBC. Black Adder aired as four individual series of six episodes each: The Black Adder, Black Adder II, Black Adder the Third and Black Adder Goes Forth. It does not contain the Xmas special.

The screenplays were written by Richard Curtis (Mr. Bean, Not the nine o'clock news) and Ben Elton - possibly one of the funniest modern writers.

In the first series, Black Adder is a weak chinned, effeminate heir to Richard, Duke of York. Set in medieval England, we are introduced to two of the most often recurring characters in Black Adders live(s) - Percy and Baldrick. Lord Percy is an eager to please, high strung dolt. Baldrick, an filthy peasant that is under qualified to be the village idiot, acts as Black Adder's golfer. Although funny, the first series may miss an American audience with some of it's historical references.

In the second series, Black Adder's next descendant is no longer heir to the throne but remains one of Queen's dearest friends. Set in Elizabethan England, we get to follow Black Adder as he plots to carouse, fornicate and steal his way to pleasure. Even funnier than the first series, Black Adder gets far more clever. We are also introduced to two additional, recurring characters - Melchett and Flash. Melchett is a pompous, over bearing palace sycophant and Flash is fast moving ladies man with more than just a sword hanging between his legs.

Black Adder's fortunes have considerably fallen by the Third Series, where he is now serving a butler to the Price Regent of England, the stupidest man in the land. Again, the clever Black Adder schemes to raise himself at the expense of everyone around him. Other great English comedic actors Hue Laurie, Robbie Coltrane and Tim McInnery all make appearances.

In the fourth and final series, Black Adder finds himself caught on the front lines of World War I. Trying to eke out a comfortable existence without being sent out on a suicidal charge against the Kaiser, Black Adder's fourth series is somewhat reminiscent of Mash. Without all the nice doctor's off course. This series has the "crudest" humour of all.

Black Adder is undoubtedly one of the funniest English comedy series ever made and the screenplays are worth owning.

Even if you are NOT a die-hard fan of The Black Adder--you WILL be after reading this book. It consists of all the scripts from the television show and reads very well. In fact, for those who have never even seen the television show, this book is easy to follow, extremely witty, and absolutely hilarious and will make you want to run out and buy the series on video!!! It translates very well in book format--I can hardly say enough good things. Profits from the sale go to Comic Relief--also, as an added bonus, the book features Black Adder's "greatest insults" and lots of other "fun stuff" from the Dark Ages, including most effective torture devices, best cures for skin diseases and deformities, etc. etc. very tongue-in-cheek. Loved it! Go out and buy this book! Highly recommend and you will laugh out loud!!

This compendium of scripts from the four Black Adder series is the perfect instant mood enhancer. Carry it to work, on the train, and best of all, to the in-laws for emergency bathroom reading. Tension and anxiety are sure to melt away after the howls of laughter induced by reading some roaring, spiffing exchanges, especially, Blackadder's hyperbolic similies.

Even for an inveterate brooder like me, it's virtually impossible to stay in a snit after a glance or two of these cunning and subtle transcripts of one of the world's most hilarious and brilliant sitcoms.

As other reviewers have noted, the dialogue translates well into print, thanks to editorial asides and stage directions. Some of the material is even funnier read than viewed. For those who haven't seen the Black Adder series, be aware that a few pages of this book can instigate quite an addiction, leading to stronger stuff like the complete series and specials on VHS. Hurrah!

I adore the Blackadder series on PBS. The show is intelligent, funny and sleazy all at the same time. The only trouble with the show is the fast-paced thick British accents; sometimes I couldn't understand a word they were saying! This book is a great reference when you're watching an episode and miss the jokes because they're muffled or just too fast.

"Blackadder" is one of the most brilliant television shows ever. The star, Rowan Atkinson, along with other series regulars such as Tony Robinson (as the perpetual dogsbody with a cunning plan,) Tim McInnerny, Stephen Fry, and Hugh Laurie carry this show through four distinct historical periods, with more laughs than could possibly be expected. Series one starts in the fifteenth century, with Atkinson as Prince Edmund, the illegitimate and despised son of the lunatic king, Richard IV. During this season Edmund adopted the moniker "The Black Adder" only after Baldrick advised him it was much more awe inspiring than his original choice "The Black Vegetable." (Note that while his name is spelled "Blackadder" in the scripts, when it is used as a title in season one, it is spelled "Black Adder.") This season sets the stage for Blackadder as a conniving and scheming con man, a reputation he and his Blackadder descendants live up to through the rest of the series.

Seasons two and three see a progression though history with Edmund first becoming Lord Edmund Blackadder, in the court of Elizabeth I (who is delightfully played by Miranda Richardson,) and later becoming the butler to Prince George, the Prince Regent, who is the idiot offspring of crazy King George III. These seasons provide the most laughs of the series for me, and I am particularly enthralled with the episode "Ink and Incapability" in which Baldrick burns Doctor Johnson's new dictionary. This episode is the ultimate in Blackadder humor, witty and urbane, yet full of madcap comedic moments as well, especially when Blackadder introduces new and confounding words for Dr. Johnson's considerations: "Contrafibularities, sir. It is a common word down our way....I am anaspeptic, phrasmotic, even compunctious to have caused you such pericombubulations." (Of course in true Blackadder fashion this only gets him in trouble, as Coleridge, the poet and Johnson ally threatens to thrust an Oriental disemboweling cutlass up his "ignoble behind.")

The forth season of Blackadder sees Atkinson as Captain Edmund Blackadder in the British army during the trench warfare of World War One France. This series also had a lot of laughs, with my favorite episode being "Private Plane," in which Blackadder and Baldrick join the Royal Air Force and are forced down behind enemy lines. They are subsequently interrogated and insulted by the Red Baron ("How lucky you English are to find the toilet so amusing, for us it is a mundane and functional item, for you it is the basis of an entire culture.") and sentenced to teach home economics to a convent of nuns for the duration of the war. One thing about this season (and two of the others) is that in the last episode of the season the entire cast dies, which elevates the series into a peculiar blend of black comedy and social commentary which I have still not grown fully accustomed to.

The book is a collection of scripts and has several extras germane to the time period being satirized which are also well done. I like the excerpt from "Dr. Johnson's Dictionary" provided on page 106, with definitions such as "left behind - part of the sitting apparatus of a personage," and "leek - a long, thin Welsh tomato." There are also helpful lists of the "Duties of the Prince Regent," "Duties of a Butler of a Royal Household" which includes "Commissioning moleskins (as and when necessary)," and "Duties of an Underscrogman." Baldrick, being the Underscrogman serving under Edmund is responsible for (among other things): "Removing and making good all squoles, whiffen-plugs, and blunters," "Cleaning the wulger-hole," "Quilping," "Cliving," "Groving," "Arranging the sheep droppings into neat little pyramids," "Frossiking the hounds," "Folding the glut-pile," and of course, "Making sandwiches."

This is a wonderful book, though if you are unfamiliar with the series, I recommend buying the DVD set and watching the shows first; a subsequent reading of this book will ensure many more laughs. As a side note, profits from this book go to the charity Comic Relief, a brief history of which appears in the last three pages of the book.

I recommend this book very highly for intelligent wit, and I likewise recommend the television series on DVD interphrastically.

I've adored Blackadder ever since I first discovered it, in taped form at a friend's house, and having a copy of the scripts makes it easier to follow along sometimes. Besides the scripts themselves, there is background material, like "Captain Darling's Emergency Request For Transfer to Somewhere Much Safer," and Baldrick's school report, where he gets good grades in corporal punishment, the teacher noting that B's piglety squeals make beating him more enjoyable.

Of course, to any "Blackadder" fan, the real high spot is the deliciously bitchy dialogue, particularly when Blackadder's telling someone off. The first-season Black Adder wasn't as good as the others IMO; but after that, the writers really got into their stride.

This 455-page 6" x 9" softcover (printed on standard "paperback" paper) contains the full scripts to every episode in each of the four series. It does not, however, include the scripts to either the Dickens' Christmas Carol special or the Millenium special. Also interspersed throughout are nineteen full-page b/w photos of the characters.

I must confess personally to a preference for behind-the-scenes and tribute books. Nevertheless, I really did enjoy reading this delightful book of scripts. For one thing, there are a number of brief comical additions ("the other bits") included for the reader's "edification." Most notable (and most hilarious) are the brief two-page "lessons" in history (both of England in general and of the Blackadder or Baldrick dynasties in particular) that fill in the gaps prior to the first series and in between subsequent series. Other highlights include very brief overviews of Mediaeval Medicine and of Instruments of Torture (a particularly ghastly example of which is the device used for (and I quote) "ruining the victim's hairdo or cutting it off entirely"). Of course, one mustn't forget Baldrick's Report Card from 1880 or the erudite extract from Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary.

This definitely was an enjoyable read. If you are a fan of this excellent, unique British comedy series and are looking for the full scripts (plus a number of cute extras), you'll enjoy this book.

This is a script-based book of all the four Blackadder series', not including the newest Millennium edition. The presentation, layout, illustrations and `the other bits' are very good, and also very funny. The book also links the four historical periods and tells us what happened to the main characters after each series ended. It has almost been turned into a historically interesting novel, with the scripts woven in. There is also a cast list and synopsis for each series/play.

The appendix's, which can be found throughout the book, includes very funny accounts of instruments of torture, medieval medicines, the Mrs Miggins' Coffee House Tariff, Duties of... Clothes bills, Passage from Dr. Johnson's Dictionary, Baldrick's family tree, Baldrick's school, Index of Blackadder's finest insult etc...

For a Blackadder fan this surly is a must. It should be in every library and in every drama club! It's a lot of fun acting and there's so many to choose from - you'll never get bored! It's a jolly good read too!