12 thoughts on “18th-Century Quest: Blackadder the Third

  1. Blackadder II. I really want that outfit! The Brits can get pretty wild. They did a very serious series about the downed pilots’ escape route in WWII called “The Secret Army”, then turned around and spoofed it in ” ‘Allo, ‘Allo.”

  2. Of course I can’t find it now, but I remember coming across an anecdote in some research I was doing a while ago (in a book without pictures, IIRC), that the sock-pinching gag in the first Blackadder III episode was based on an actual issue that Prince George had with a valet who stole his stockings. Gah! I hate it when my brain remembers one stupid factoid and then completely forgets the reference for it!

    Anyway. Yes. The writers for Blackadder clearly did the research.

  3. Melchy, who’s queen?

    I love III because there’s so much of Hugh Laurie being a complete buffoon, but Miranda Richardson as Queenie in II is so perfect, she takes the cake!

  4. I love 18th Century Blackadder, but my favourite will Always be the second series. Rowan Atkinson is actually quite hot in it and even if the characters only have one outfit each, they look great! But the third is really Close, not to mention Goes Fourth, which is extremely black, but still very very funny.

  5. I have to admit that II is my favourite series, but III comes a very close second. I was actually watching a rundown of the top 40 best bits last weekend, and when they showed the scene where Mrs Miggins declares her affection for Blackadder, I was like “Ooooh! Those clothes are actually pretty decent!” Mainly it was the cap and fichu that drew my attention.

    Best bit inevitably went to the last episode of Fourth, but I adamantly believe that Flashheart’s scene-stealing in II should have won. Wwwoooof!

  6. Speaking of comedy and Hugh Laurie – have you frockers seen ‘The young visiters[sic]’? I’d love to see a write-up by you (and for the record, I found it hilarious – even more so after having read the book it’s based on).

  7. I can’t overstate how much I love this show. If I had to pick a favorite season though it would have to be Blackadder II because no one beats Queenie

  8. Goes Forth is definitely my favorite, though the costumes are a bit dull, then 3, 2, and the original. I also remember how the first show I ever saw Hugh Laurie in was House, so it was a very pleasant surprise to find his over-the-top comedic beginnings

  9. I love this Regency series best, if only because Hugh Laurie and Miranda Richardson get to do comedy in it. I know they’re fine dramatic actors, but I prefer them both being silly and making me roll off the bed with laughter. (And the costumes are so good I don’t even notice them much, apart from the wigs. Somehow one always notices wigs.)

  10. Not a period piece, but in The Night Manager, Laurie turns a chilling performance as an international arms dealer; right up there with Orson Welles in The Third Man. I still want Blackadder’s Elizabethan outfit.

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