| "Bells" | |
|---|---|
| Blackadder episode | |
| Episode no. | Series 2 Episode 1 |
| Directed by | Mandie Fletcher |
| Written by | Ben Elton Richard Curtis |
| Original air date | 9 January 1986 |
| Guest appearances | |
| Rik Mayall Gabrielle Glaister John Grillo Edward Jewesbury Barbara Miller Young | |
"Bells" is the first episode of the BBC sitcom Blackadder II, the second series of Blackadder, which was set in Elizabethan England from 1558 to 1603. Although "Bells" was the first to be broadcast on BBC1, it was originally destined to be the second episode.[1]
The plot of the episode, of a young woman disguising herself as a man to go into service and falling in love with her employer, is particularly based on a significant plot thread of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.[2]